Citycell wants to get license back, letter to BTRC

Country's first mobile phone operator CityCell has written to the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) seeking reinstatement of its revoked licence. In the letter, the organization claimed that their wave was initially suspended due to political vendetta. Citycell has been closed since 2016.

In the letter, former state minister for telecommunication Tarana Halim has been blamed by Pacific Bangladesh Telecom, the owner of CityCell.

It said that the license was canceled on the 'absurd assumption' that Citycell was associated with a political party that was not in favor of the then Awami League government.

BTRC, however, said then that Citycell's license was canceled due to non-payment of Tk 218 crore dues.

The letter said, "We regret to inform you that for the past eight years, CityCell's parent company Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited (PBTL) has been subjected to biased, unfavorable and dishonest decisions and assessments by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

In the letter, Pacific Telecom said that due to the shutdown of the wave, in the last 8 years, bank loans, employee arrears, damage to infrastructure - in all they have lost about Tk 4 thousand crores.

2000 crores of revenue has not been possible due to 8 years of closed operations. In this, the government has lost about Tk 430 crore in taxes and fees. They now seek withdrawal of the letter issued for license cancellation. Also wants a technology neutral license, which will include 5G.

They will pay for it, but only after collecting the revenue.

Incidentally, Citycell has been closed since 2016. In October 2016, a technical team from the regulatory agency visited CityCell's head office in Mohakhali, Dhaka and shut down the company's network switch after failing to pay dues on time.