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BGMEA chiefs company gets IGW licence

Muhammad Zahidul Isiam
The government is set to award one more licence for the international voice call routing - a mindboggling move given the sector is already overcrowded and struggling.
The new licence was given to LR Telecom, a company owned by the president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturersand Exporters Association and his family.
Since 2013, the sector has been controlled by a cartel of International Gateway (IGW) operators.
Amidst the backdrop, two months ago, BGMEA President Siddiqur Rahman, chairman of LR Telecom Limited, suddenly applied to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission for a licence.
This prompted the telecom regulator to open the procedure for licensing.
The BTRC, the licence awarding authority for telecom-related services, on September 19 invited applications for awarding IGW licence without mentioning the number of licences it would award.
Following the BTRC's invitation, 14 companies, including LR Telecom, applied for IGW licence and the telecom regulator chose only one company and made the recommendation to the posts, telecommunication and information communication ministry, said official of the regulator.
Rahman yesterday said he has no idea whether he got the licence or not but he has grand plans for this industry'.
His son will run the business as he is the managing director of LR Telecom. Rahman's wife is also a director of the company while the fourth director is a family member too, said a top official of the BTRC.
The licence would be awarded upon fulfilment of licensing conditions by LRTelecom, he said.
The IGW business started in 2008 after an open auction. Only three private companies got the licence, with one being the government-owned Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited.
Then in 2010, the Awami League-led government, during the first of its two consecutive terms, issued 25 IGW licences, mostly for party-men, ignoring a BTRC assessment that informed that the sector could hardly accommodate four more entities.
The telecom regulator still issued the new licences following pressure from the politically-affiliated businesses.
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Currently, there are 25 active licences running the IGW business. Four licences have already been cancelled for improperly sharing revenues, which is a violation of the rules.
Six companies, which have about Tk 1,000 crore in dues pertaining to licence fees and revenue share of the telecom regulator, have gone traceless after transferring the shares to unidentified persons.
Rahman said he is well aware of the industry and will try to match with the process.
After the increase in licence numbers, the operators pressurised the government to reduce its revenue-sharing portion to 40 percent from 51.75 percent for viability of
their business.
Later, the operators created a cartel and increased the incoming international call routing rate to 2 cents per minute. However, they continued sharing revenue with the government at the previous rate of 1.5 cents per minute.
Currently, calls of about 4.5 crore minutes in duration are coming into the country every day. It was about 11 crore minutes on average every day in September 2014.
Despite the fall in the volume of international calls, the government in February this year increased the international call termination rate to 2.5 cents from 2 cents while the operators were asked to share revenue with the government at 1.75 cents per minute.