Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Monday dropped a writ petition from its cause-list which was filed by Grameenphone, the largest telecom operator of the country, over the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission’s (BTRC) imposition of SMP instructions on the operator.
The High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur sent made the writ petition “out of list” after holding a virtual hearing on it.
Earlier in the morning Barrister Mustafizur Rahman Khan, a counsel for the Grameenphone, prayed that his client would not proceed with the writ petition as it was moving for a settlement
over the issue through discussion with Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.
Grameenphone on June 28 this year filed the writ petition with the High Court, challenging legality of BTRC’s decision that imposed two new restrictions on the country’s telecom market leader.
On June 22, the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) imposed two conditions on GP under the Significant Market Power (SMP) guidelines, aiming to create a level playing ground for all telecom operators.
In February last year, the BTRC declared GP as an SMP operator in an attribution that opened the path for engineering several strategic moves to curb its dominance in the local telecom market.
Later, GP went to court to stop the move, but BTRC finally won. On December 15 last year, the HC bench headed by Justice Farah Mahbub, passed an order, allowing the BTRC to impose the Significant Market Power Regulations 2018.
After five months, BTRC imposed two conditions on GP including taking permission before introducing any package, service and offer and also take permission for existing offers and services.
Usually, the BTRC approves packages for one year and then the operators are allowed running such packages for more than one year, subject to intimation to the commission.
The other restriction involves reducing the mobile number portability (MNP) lock-in period from 90 days to 60 days.
That does mean any GP subscriber now can switch to other operators after 60 days under the MNP service while subscribers from other operators requires 90 days before switching to GP.
The High Court on Monday dropped a writ petition from its cause-list which was filed by Grameenphone, the largest telecom operator of the country, over the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission’s (BTRC) imposition of SMP instructions on the operator.
The High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur sent made the writ petition “out of list” after holding a virtual hearing on it.
Earlier in the morning Barrister Mustafizur Rahman Khan, a counsel for the Grameenphone, prayed that his client would not proceed with the writ petition as it was moving for a settlement
over the issue through discussion with Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.
Grameenphone on June 28 this year filed the writ petition with the High Court, challenging legality of BTRC’s decision that imposed two new restrictions on the country’s telecom market leader.
On June 22, the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) imposed two conditions on GP under the Significant Market Power (SMP) guidelines, aiming to create a level playing ground for all telecom operators.
In February last year, the BTRC declared GP as an SMP operator in an attribution that opened the path for engineering several strategic moves to curb its dominance in the local telecom market.
Later, GP went to court to stop the move, but BTRC finally won. On December 15 last year, the HC bench headed by Justice Farah Mahbub, passed an order, allowing the BTRC to impose the Significant Market Power Regulations 2018.
After five months, BTRC imposed two conditions on GP including taking permission before introducing any package, service and offer and also take permission for existing offers and services.
Usually, the BTRC approves packages for one year and then the operators are allowed running such packages for more than one year, subject to intimation to the commission.
The other restriction involves reducing the mobile number portability (MNP) lock-in period from 90 days to 60 days.
That does mean any GP subscriber now can switch to other operators after 60 days under the MNP service while subscribers from other operators requires 90 days before switching to GP.
