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More than a dozen of local and international companies have expressed their intention to participate in the open bidding to become the fifth private cell phone operator in Bangladesh.
The identity of the bidders and various others issues of the open licencing criteria including financial, technical and general condition were disclosed Tuesday at a pre-bid meeting organised by the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
The BTRC, the country's telecom watchdog, has floated invitation since early this month to award a globalised system for mobile communication (GSM) operating licence to a private operator at a charge of $ 50 million.
Warid Telecom, a venture of the United Arab Emirates based Dhabi Group, has already submitted two offers. Besides, local leading group Basundhara and telecom companies from Jordon and Kuwait are likely to join the fray.
The companies which have already submitted the offers include MB telecom Limited, Ericsson, National Telecom Limited, Concord Progati Consortium Ltd, Dominox Technologies, Ranks Telecom Ltd, Global Suppliers Ltd, TM International (Bangladesh) and the Civil Engineers Ltd.
The last date for submitting offer is 11.30 pm, November 17.
Besides the licence acquisition fee worth $50 million, country's next private operator has to invest nearly Tk 300 million on various other charges such like application fee and bank guarantee.
Sources, however, alleged that the bidding had been designed to favour a particular company.
The Dhabi Group signed an expression of interest with the Board of Investment a couple of moths ago to invest over $ 1.0 billion in telecom and hospitality sectors.
It has planned to pour a half of the investment in cellular phone sector.
The BTRC guideline, sources said, did not reflect the sentiment expressed earlier by the policy makers, including finance minister Saifur Rahman, who had favoured auction system during his budget speech so that the licencing authority could earn the maximum as the licence acquisition fee.
"Instead of auction system, the BTRC has invited open bidding system and set the conditions in a way that will favour the bid by a particular telecom company," said a high BTRC official on condition of anonymity.
Had the BTRC introduced auction system it could have easily earned a higher amount from awarding the licence, observed the official.
The Warid Telecom had to spend nearly $ 300 million to earn a GSM operating licence in Pakistan in 2003.
Telenor, the Norwegian telecom operator, which has the maximum shares in the country's largest private operator--GrameenPhone--also obtained a GSM licence in Pakistan at the same price in the same year.
According to the guideline, the BTRC will offer the licence to only one eligible bidder for an initial period of fifteen years. After that period the licence may be renewed by the commission subject to satisfactory performance by the company concerned.
Existing cellular phone operators or its partners in Bangladesh, either in their own name or in association with any other operator will not be eligible to apply under the general condition.
Under the technical condition, the BTRC demands the proposed GSM cellular mobile telecommunications system to be operated in the 1710-1765/1805-1860 MHz GSM band.
The selected operator will be permitted to install its transmission network within the country but all international calls should be routed through the Bangladesh Telephone and Telegraph Board (BTTB) networks until decided otherwise.
The proposed system should not interfere with any of the existing systems in the country.
At present there are four private operators and one government owned public limited company, providing cellular telecommunication service.
However, the BTRC has not issuing any licence. All the licences were issued by the telecommunications ministry.
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