The telecom regulator has decided to allow mobile phone operators to pay spectrum acquisition fees in the local currency, a relief for them as the US dollar has become costlier to a large extent.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) took the decision at a meeting recently.

The row between the regulator and the operators over determining the currency for the clearing of the spectrum price surfaced in August last year when the BTRC sent a letter to the companies seeking their views on what currency should be used to settle the payment.

The payment was related to 190 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum acquired by the country's four mobile phone operators at $1.23 billion in March 2022.

Banglalink, Grameenphone, and Robi wrote to the BTRC on October 22, requesting it fix the price in the local currency.

According to the operators, companies in all other South Asian nations except Pakistan pay the spectrum bill in their local currencies.

The price of spectrum was fixed in the taka from 2008 to 2011, BTRC documents showed. However, during the auctions in 2013, 2018, 2021 and 2022, the price was fixed in the USD.

However, the operators, in most cases, were permitted to pay it in installments in the local currency based on the exchange rate on the day of the auctions.

"We have always paid the spectrum fee in the taka," said Shahed Alam, chief corporate and regulatory officer of Robi, adding that the spectrum was priced in dollars solely to align them against the rates in other countries.

Sheikh Reaz Ahmed, a commissioner at the BTRC, said: "The spectrum fee will be set in the taka and the operators will be able to pay it for the spectrum they acquired in 2022."

If specified, the fee will have to be settled on the basis of the dollar rate at the time of payments, he added.

During the last auction held in March 2022, the four operators bought 190 MHz of spectrum for $1.23 billion, or Tk 10,645 crore, as per the exchange rate on the day.

That auction lasted only one hour, with market leader Grameenphone buying 60 MHz in 2600 band for Tk 3,361 crore. The same was done by Robi, the second-largest operator.

Banglalink took 40 MHz in the 2300 band for Tk 2,241 crore while state-run Teletalk purchased 30 MHz in the same band for Tk 1,681 crore.

A total of 220 MHz in 2300 and 2600 bands at a base rate of $6 million per MHz were up for sale.

In 2021, some 27.4 MHz was sold at $885.35 million. The base rate was $27 million for the 2100 band and $31 million for the 1800 band.

The scope to settle the bills in the local currency will come as a respite for the operators since the dollar has gained by about 35 percent against the taka in the past two years amid continuous depletion of the foreign currency reserves.

The dollar traded at Tk 86 in March 2022 whereas it has shot to Tk 117 recently, Bangladesh Bank data showed.