Telcos against high licence fee, revenue-sharing in 4G

Parent companies of top three mobile phone operators in Bangladesh have voiced concerns against any possible high licence fees and revenue-sharing rate for the fourth generation (4G) services.

The parent companies sent a joint letter to State Minister for Telecom Tarana Halim last week, saying high charges would hamper their investments in infrastructure and affect their ability to provide services to customers at affordable prices.

The letter was signed by Hans Wijayasuriya, regional chief executive officer of Axiata Group, parent company of Robi, Petter-Borre Furberg, executive vice president of Telenor, Grameenphone's parent company, and Jon Eddy, head of emerging markets of VEON Ltd, Banglalink's parent company.

The three together control about 97 percent of Bangladesh's mobile phone subscribers' base.

The operators urged the government not to impose any fee on technology neutrality in spectrum uses.

Setting such a fee for converting all existing spectrum into technology neutral spectrum is in effect penalising the industry's intent to ensure that spectrum is used more efficiently and discourages innovation, according to the letter.

"Technology neutrality is a key step for Bangladesh to leapfrog legacy technologies."

Mobile operators currently use 2100 band for 3G services, and 900 and 1800 bands for 2G services. If they have technology neutrality it will give them scope to use spectrum efficiently and offer faster data services.

The three operators also requested the government to set the floor price for spectrum below $20 million per megahertz during the upcoming auction, the level used in 2013. It said the floor price in a spectrum auction "needs to be set significantly below the expected end price to allow the auction itself to reveal the market clearing price and ensure that all spectrum is sold.

The letter cited recent global examples such as in India and African countries, saying by establishing high spectrum costs they have turned away potential investment that could have been put into new networks and services.

The operators called for a revenue-sharing with the government at a maximum 5 percent, from 5.5 percent now.

The Global Systems for Mobile Association, an international forum of mobile operators, also called for lower 4G licencing fees.