The telecom regulatory environment in Bangladesh created challenges for industry, with numerous regulatory hurdles for operators, inability to adopt best-use technologies to maximize economic value and lack of flexibility – all of which resulted in higher costs, and lower quality services to consumers. A new way forward was required to break this paradigm, with a unified licensing regime proposed by industry for consideration by the regulator and government. A unified license combines licensing for both the provision of services and the operation of network facilities and if properly implemented a unified licensing regime should provide a simplified licensing procedure, allowing service providers to use any technology, ensuring greater flexibility and an efficient use of resources.
Our ICT and regulatory governance experts reviewed the telecommunications licensing regime for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and benchmarked the existing licensing approach with the ‘unified licensing regime’ model used in neighboring countries and the impact on the regulatory environment for Bangladesh. This revealed that a new approach would simplify the existing licensing regime and reduce the regulatory hurdles for operators. The technology neutrality of the new approach would also be allowing operators to adopt best-use technologies that maximize economic value and provide more flexibility – all of which would provide lower cost, higher quality to consumers on a long-term sustainable basis. Our experts recommended and developed a new Unified Licensing Regime for Bangladesh, drafting the necessary policy, implementing legislation, regulatory processes, and transition plan for the BTRC, including undertaking an extensive industry consultation process around the changes.
The advantages to regulators, operators, and consumers that were delivered under the Unified Licensing Regime for telecommunication included a simplified licensing structure that reduced the regulatory burden and provided flexibility for operators and technology neutrality that allowed operators to adopt best-use technologies that maximized economic value.