Citycell, the country's first mobile operator which has not been operational since 2016, has sent a letter to the telecom regulator recently seeking the reinstatement of its licence.

In the letter, the company said its licence cancellation was due to an "unjustified perception" that Citycell was affiliated with a political party not favoured by the then Awami League government.

"We regretfully inform you that, over the past eight years, Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited (PBTL), the parent company of Citycell, has been subjected to arbitrary decisions and assessments by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) with biased, ulterior and ill motives," the letter stated.

"Furthermore, evident discriminatory actions have been taken by the BTRC in excess and abuse of its powers based solely on the unjustified perception that PBTL is close to a political party not in favour of the immediate past government," it mentioned.  

Citycell's operations were officially halted in 2016 after the telecom regulator cancelled the spectrum of Bangladesh's first mobile operator, which had served customers for more than two decades.

In October 2016, a technical team from the regulator rushed to Citycell's head office in Mohakhali, Dhaka, to shut its network switch after the operator failed to pay its dues on time.

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Citycell switched off

At that time, Citycell owed Tk 477.69 crore to the regulator, according to the BTRC.

A court ordered Citycell to pay two-thirds of the amount, or Tk 318.42 crore, within four weeks.

Citycell said it paid Tk 244 crore, which is two-thirds of the dues calculated by the mobile network operator, to avoid closure.

At the time, Tarana Halim, the then state minister for telecom, told reporters at a press conference at the BTRC office, "We have taken the decision in line with a High Court verdict. The spectrum suspension is permanent, and there is no scope for reversing it."

However, the telecom regulator, in compliance with an Appellate Division order, returned Citycell's spectrum and allowed the operator to use it for radio communication.

But the company was unable to resume operations.

Even before the operation closure, Citycell, which used code-division multiple access (CDMA) technology compared to popular global system for mobile communications (GSM), had its customer-base plummeting to 5.59 lakh in 2016 from the peak of 30 lakh in early 2010s.    

The key difference between GSM and CMDA is that GSM handsets have SIM card slots, but CDMA has a fixed SIM card number fixed for a handset. To many tech-savvy youths, it translated into a disadvantage, deterring them to switch in between other options.  

In September 2022, the government cancelled Citycell's frequency allotment due to non-payment of dues. Later, in March 2023, the BTRC cancelled the company's licence, claiming that PBTL owed Tk 218 crore to the regulator.

In the licence cancellation letter, BTRC said PBTL failed to make payment of dues and comply with the order and judgement of the Appellate Division.

For comment, The Daily Star approached the telecom regulator regarding Citycell's licence reinstatement request. But, BTRC officials declined to comment on it.

Nishat Ali Khan, head of regulatory and corporate affairs at PBTL, told The Daily Star that the dues mentioned in the cancellation letter mainly consisted of late fees. "We have paid all the principal dues," he said.

He added that late fees and running bills were accrued from the allocated spectrum, which was not in use.

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Citycell's demise a formality away

"Had the company not been shut down due to the arbitrary decisions of the BTRC and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, PBTL's revenue over the past eight years could have been approximately Tk 2,000 crore," PBTL claimed in its letter to the BTRC.

The company demanded the reinstatement of its cellular mobile phone operator licence and radio communication equipment licence, along with a complete 10 MHz spectrum.

They also requested that the licences for 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G be valid until 2033 and called for the waiving of the "unlawful and arbitrary" penalty for non-payment of the licence fee.

Former senior BNP leader and former foreign minister Morshed Khan is the chairman PBTL.