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The government has finally cancelled the license of the country’s first mobile operator CityCell.
The Posts and Telecommunications Division under the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology on Tuesday sent a letter of prior approval for license cancellation to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
In September 2022, the government cancelled CityCell’s frequency allotment. There was only a 2G license, but now that too has been cancelled.
The telecom regulator had decided to cancel the license of CityCell in a high-profile commission meeting and sent a letter to the Posts and Telecommunications division seeking prior approval from the government for the matter.
BTRC received a letter of approval from the government on Tuesday to cancel the license. Now the regulatory body will start the process to send the letter to CityCell.
BTRC Commissioner Abu Syed Dilzar Hossain said, "We have received a letter of prior approval of CityCell’s license cancellation from the ministry on Tuesday. We will forward a license cancellation letter to Citycell as early as possible.”
The letter, signed by SM Tariq, Deputy Secretary of the Posts and Telecommunications division, states that due to the non-payment of revenue fees within the stipulated time the license has been cancelled.
As per the decision of the commission meeting and the recommendation of BTRC of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulation Act 2021, the ministry approved the cancellation decision and sent the prior approval for the cancellation of the 2G Cellular Mobile Operator License issued in favour of Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited (PBTL).
CityCell's connection service has remained completely suspended since November 8, 2016.
According to BTRC sources, the government owes over TK218 crore to Citycell till August 2022 and the legal process to recover the money will be started soon. The late fee on this amount will be added till the due date or as per the judgment of the court. And the debt of the closed institution has been increasing day by day for six years.
When contacted, said “Whenever someone does not comply with the terms of the license, it is normal for the license to be cancelled. Even if we look technologically, it must be clear that the technology of Citycell is not being used anywhere in the world now. So, there is no question of keeping this license. The responsibility of collecting the due from CityCell is of the BTRC," said the minister.
What will CityCell subscribers and employees do?
When contacted, the President of the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers' Association Mohiuddin Ahmed said that CityCell had around 17 lakh subscribers when it was shut down in 2016.
Technology and devices were so costly at that time. Consumers had to count a total loss of around Tk200 crore after their devices went malfunctioning. But BTRC did not compensate for them.
“CityCell had paid a huge amount of money when securing a license from the government. The commission could have repaid the consumers’ loss from that money. But it did not give any attention to our demand,” he said.
As a regulatory body, the BTRC could not shut the mobile operators without solving the issues of the subscribers and its employees, he added.
Ashraful Karim, the president of The CityCell Employees' Association said, "Some 630 people are still working for CityCell. The dues of 250 of those employees have been partially cleared but the others got nothing till now."
A total of 430 people were employed as permanent staff when CityCell was shut down by the telecom regulator. Most of them were not paid their salaries yet.
“As CityCell had no physical office, we could not meet together and continue our protest based on any particular office or places; on top of that the owner’s sides were very influential and not reachable, so it was stopped later and left deprived till date.
“We have tried through the labour union to reach BTRC, but it was too costly to continue,” he said.
Senior BNP leader and former foreign minister Morshed Khan who was the chairman of the board of Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd or PBTL, which uses Citycell as its brand name was sued by employees over the issue.
