Infozillion BD Teletech Consortium will provide Mobile Number Portability (MNP) in Bangladesh as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has approved the proposal last week Sources at the Posts and Telecommunication Divi-sion confirmed the matter to media.
The proposal of Teletalk's joint venture company of Slovenia, a country in Central Europe, has about 24 million customers using MNP service in three markets -- Armenia, Montenegro and Slovenia, was sent to the Prime Minister's Office in September this year.
The proposal first went to BTRC and the Posts and Telecommunication Division for review. After reviewing it they sent the proposal to the PMO. After this final approval, the existing 11-digit mobile number will be available in the country and the facility of changing operators will be launched in the country very soon, according to sources.
Infozillion's Managing Director Mabrur Hossain said they knew their proposal was been sent to the Prime Minister's Office for approval but that they did not hear of getting the final approval. He however said if the news was true, it must be good news for them.
Negotiation over MNP in Bangladesh has been going on for one decade now but the service could not be started yet. BTRC had first postponed and then cancelled the open auction scheduled for September 28 last year for awarding the MNP license amid security concerns as all the selected firms had foreign partners.
Later, the auction became uncertain and instead of changing the decision, the government organized a beauty contest instead of the auction where the previous five companies have applied.
The firms are Roots Infotech Limited, Agile Technology Limited, REVE Number Limited, Greentech International Limited and Infozillion BD Teletech Consortium Limited.
According to source, the firm that will finally be selected to operate MNP in Bangladesh will have to pay Tk 20 lakh as license renewal fee annually and have to share 5.5% of their revenue with BTRC.
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