 | Operators mull court move against telecom law
23 June, 2010
Six mobile operators plan to seek judicial intervention as the last resort to preventing the upcoming telecom law, which they say will create a setback for the industry.
However, the top brasses of these operators said they hope the government will not pass the law that is 'unfriendly' to the growing telecom and ICT sector, as it promised a digital Bangladesh.
"We may seek court's intervention, if parliament passes the bill," Oddvar Hesjedal, chief executive officer of Grameenphone, told a press conference at Dhaka Westin hotel in the capital yesterday.
Ahmed Abou Doma, CEO of Banglalink, Michael Kuehnar, CEO of Robi, Chris Tobit, CEO of Warid Telecom, Mehboob Chowdhury, CEO of Citycell and and Mujibur Rahman, managing director of the state-owned TeleTalk, were present.
The press meet was organised by the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators in Bangladesh to react to taxes on the telecom industry and the bill that proposed amendments to the Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Act 2010.
The bill was placed in parliament on June 13 and later sent to the parliamentary standing committee on posts and telecommunication ministry for further scrutiny.
The caretaker government through an ordinance introduced the tough law for the sector in December 2008. Subsequently, the elected government did not ratify the law in parliament with an objective to make it more industry- friendly in line with the idea of a digital Bangladesh.
However, it is a matter of worry for the operators that the bill has kept intact almost everything proposed by the then interim government, according to Zakiul Islam, the operators' association president. Islam presented a keynote paper at the press meet.
Release link:http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=143750
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