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a year ago

CityCell's licence cancelled

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The government has finally cancelled 2G licence of the country's first mobile operator CityCell.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Com-mission (BTRC) sent a letter in this connection to the mobile operator on Wednesday.

In September 2022, the government cancelled City-Cell's frequency allotment. There was only a 2G licence.

Earlier on Tuesday, BTRC received a letter of approval from the government to cancel the 2G licence of CityCell.

The letter, signed by SM Tariq, Deputy Secretary of the Posts and Telecommunications division, reads that due to the non-payment of revenue fees within the stipulated time the licence has been cancelled.

BTRC filed two separate cases against CityCell to recover dues of around Tk 2.18 billion by August 2022.

The late fee on this amount will be added till the due date or as per the judgment of the court. And the debt of the closed institution has been increasing day by day for six years.

However, CityCell's connection service has remained completely suspended since November 8, 2016.

According to the CityCell Employees' Association, some 630 people are still working for CityCell.

A total of 430 people were employed as permanent staff when CityCell was shut down by the telecom regulator. Most of them have not received their salaries yet.

Senior BNP leader and former foreign minister Morshed Khan was the chairman of the board of Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd or PBTL, which owns CityCell.

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