In response to Grameenphone’s (GP) call for arbitration to settle dues with the government after it’s bandwidth was reduced, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said there was no scope for that in line with the existing law.
BTRC Chairman Md Jahurul Haque made it clear during a media call at his offices on Sunday (Jul 7), hours after the mobile phone operator’s demand for the arbitration came, according to media reports.
Earlier in the day, GP Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Patrick Foley said the company was very shocked over the BTRC move which made millions of data users suffer.
"We do not want to go to the court”, he told a press conference before adding they want to resolve the problem through “arbitration."
On Jul 4, the telecom regulator instructed the country’s five International Internet Gateways (IIGs) to limit GP’s bandwidth capacity at 144gbps (gigabits per second) and Robi’s at 125gbps as the two mobile operators did not pay its due amount to the government detected in audits.
The BTRC, after auditing GP in April, said Grameenphone has Tk 125.8 billion as due and Robi, on the other hand, needs to pay the government Tk 8.67 billion.
Of the total amount, Grameenphone owes Tk 8.494 billion to BTRC and Tk 40.86 billion to National Board of Revenue.