The telecommunications ministry has finalised a guideline for the licence renewal fees and spectrum charges of four mobile phone companies based on their usage of bandwidth and 'market competition factor' as per which the companies will have to pay a total of Tk 7,620 crore.
The ministry on Sunday sent the new guideline for renewal fees of 2G licence and other charges for Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell to the finance ministry for approval.
As per the guideline, the companies would pay around Tk 10 crore each as licence renewal fees and their base-fee for using each megahertz of bandwidth would be Tk 150 crore for 15 years. The companies' licences are schedule to expire on November 15.
The guideline, however, set the actual bandwidth charge based on 'a market competition factor' that takes into account the total number of subscribers of a mobile operator and income against each subscriber.
As the Grameenphone has the largest number of subscribers, the company's market competition factor was set at 1.48 which would be multiplied with the charge of each MHz of bandwidth. Based on that calculation, the GP's bandwidth change was set at Tk 222 crore per MHz.
According to the guideline, GP would pay a total of Tk 3,251 crore, including licence renewal fee of around Tk 10 crore, in three instalments by two years. GP has taken licence for using 14.6 MHzs of bandwidth.
The market competition factor of second largest operator Banglalink has been set at 1.06, based on which the company's spectrum charge is Tk 159 crore per MHz.
The total fees and charges of Banglalink have been set at Tk 1,981 crore.
Robi's market competition factor has been set at 0.99 and its total fees and charges would be Tk 1,910 crore while CityCell's competition factor would be 0.30 and its total fees and charges would be Tk 460 crore.
Officials of the telecommunication ministry said that the four mobile companies' fees and charges were finalised as per the decision of a meeting, headed by the prime minister Sheikh Hasina, which was held last week.
The meeting decided that the minimum spectrum charge would be Tk 150 crore per MHz and the market competition factor would be introduced instead of 'utilisation factor' earlier proposed by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Authority.
The BTRC initially drafted a guideline proposing to reconsider the 'utilisation factor' to determine the fees, according to which the companies were supposed to pay Tk 12,188 crore.
But, because of objection by the four mobile companies, international lenders and various quarters in the government, the fees and charges were slashed, said officials of the telecommunication ministry.
They said that the new guideline which was submitted to the finance ministry would be sent to the prime minister for approval after the finance minister approves it.
'The new guideline will be in force soon so that the mobile companies could start their licence renewal process before the expiry of their licence,' said an official.
Source : New Age
