A total of 669 category-based license applications have been submitted to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission’s License Issue and Management System (LIMS) in eight months till May last year. As part of the new license for internet service providers, seven companies have received prior approval in the first phase of evaluating applications from Barishal Division, Barishal District, Chandpur Sadar, Raozan, Cumilla Sadar South, Chittagong EPZ Upazila and Thana.
The companies are Raka Enterprise, Computer.net, Abir Online System, Rio Communication, Farah.com, Meta Online and Speed Network Solutions.
According to BTRC sources, eligible applications have been considered for giving licenses as per the policy in the step-by-step evaluation process from the submitted applications.
The BTRC introduced the License Issue and Management System (LIMS) from September 20, 2023. From that day, the BTRC started accepting applications for ISP licenses at divisional, district, upazila and thana levels through LIMS. According to the company’s decision, there was an obligation of a maximum of five applications to be lodged for a new ISP license. But till February 29, 610 applications were received. During the evaluation, it was found that five applications against a license were not submitted in two divisions, 30 districts and 220 thanas. Many were unable to accept applications due to the closure of new applications in the LIMS system. Therefore, the commission considers the next course of action after evaluating the application submitted against one in the prescribed rules. Besides, where the application was not submitted according to the rules, the BTRC decided to accept the application again.
On April 17 this year, a notice signed by BTRC Licensing Branch Director Sajeda Parvin said that all the companies seeking new ISP licenses through the License Issuance and Management System (LIMS) were requested to apply to the commission until further orders. In the public interest, the commission has resumed accepting applications from all the organizations seeking new ISP licenses.
According to BTRC, 2,804 companies have ISP licenses in four categories in the country. However, the number of illegal ISPs is believed to be more than 6,000.
