BTRC issues show-cause notice to Citycell for unregistered lines
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
FE Report
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Monday issued a show-cause notice to Citycell, asking the mobile operator to explain why it is selling unregistered connections.
The regulator's move came, as criminals recently threatened some VVIPs including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her nephew lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh over cellphone.
"We have found at least two dozens of Citycell's unregistered removable user identity module cards. Some of their connections have been used in criminal activities," a senior BTRC official said.
Citycell, the country's fifth largest mobile operator with 1.95 million subscribers as of December 2009, will have to reply to the notice within 30 days, a BTRC statement quoted its chairman Zia Ahmed as saying.
The commission would also scrutinise the connection selling process of the country's six mobile operators to prevent criminals from using telecom networks for their illegal activities, the BTRC official said.
Citycell officials said they have not yet received any show-cause letter from the BTRC, but they are supporting the regulator and the law-enforcing agencies in this connection.
"We are supporting the BTRC and the law-enforcing agencies from the very beginning," said Mahfuzur Rahman, Citycell technical and corporate affairs director.
He said criminals using a particular number had been allegedly threatening VVIPs for several days. "The BTRC had asked us to inform them about the distributor of that number."
"We have in written submitted the distributor's name to them. We have also supplied them a list of the numbers whose papers have not been found," he told the FE.
Mr Rahman said according to BTRC rules, papers regarding any connection sale have to be reached to the operator by seven days. "But we are not sure whether papers of those numbers would reach to us. So we have requested the BTRC to inform us what we will do with those numbers if we don't get their papers."
"We have already cancelled the distributorship of that distributor, as he has failed to show papers on connection sales."
"We are cooperating with the law-enforcing agencies. We have also filed a general diary with the police station," he added.
Citycell or Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd is the only code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile operator in the local market of 52.43 million users.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Monday issued a show-cause notice to Citycell, asking the mobile operator to explain why it is selling unregistered connections.
The regulator's move came, as criminals recently threatened some VVIPs including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her nephew lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh over cellphone.
"We have found at least two dozens of Citycell's unregistered removable user identity module cards. Some of their connections have been used in criminal activities," a senior BTRC official said.
Citycell, the country's fifth largest mobile operator with 1.95 million subscribers as of December 2009, will have to reply to the notice within 30 days, a BTRC statement quoted its chairman Zia Ahmed as saying.
The commission would also scrutinise the connection selling process of the country's six mobile operators to prevent criminals from using telecom networks for their illegal activities, the BTRC official said.
Citycell officials said they have not yet received any show-cause letter from the BTRC, but they are supporting the regulator and the law-enforcing agencies in this connection.
"We are supporting the BTRC and the law-enforcing agencies from the very beginning," said Mahfuzur Rahman, Citycell technical and corporate affairs director.
He said criminals using a particular number had been allegedly threatening VVIPs for several days. "The BTRC had asked us to inform them about the distributor of that number."
"We have in written submitted the distributor's name to them. We have also supplied them a list of the numbers whose papers have not been found," he told the FE.
Mr Rahman said according to BTRC rules, papers regarding any connection sale have to be reached to the operator by seven days. "But we are not sure whether papers of those numbers would reach to us. So we have requested the BTRC to inform us what we will do with those numbers if we don't get their papers."
"We have already cancelled the distributorship of that distributor, as he has failed to show papers on connection sales."
"We are cooperating with the law-enforcing agencies. We have also filed a general diary with the police station," he added.
Citycell or Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd is the only code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile operator in the local market of 52.43 million users.