Robi rejoinder and our reply

Robi Axiata Ltd, the second largest mobile network operator in the country, has sent a rejoinder to a report carried by The Business Standard on October 4, under the headline "Airtel's 2G licence set to expire Dec 19".

The rejoinder reads, "There is no question of Airtel Bangladesh Ltd losing any licence, as they don't even exist. Moreover, licencing obligation for technologies like 2G, 3G, or 4G has no correlation with spectrum renewal."

The rejoinder also says, "The report further lost its credibility as it quoted me without my consent. I can say with full confidence that we did not provide any such quote which has been used in the report. It is true that the reporter concerned had called me and we had a casual conversation over phone on the issue. We simply tried to reply to the queries of your reporter, as we do with a lot of other journalists."

Our reply

The report was done based on proper documents and information collected from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

The BTRC's document regarding the approval on Robi Axiata Ltd's merger with Airtel Bangladesh Ltd, reads that Airtel Bangladesh Ltd's mobile operation licence will expire on 19 December, 2020. In another clause of the same document, it is written that the merged company will have to renew the allotted spectrum after the expiry date.

The rejoinder itself says the reporter concerned had talked with the Robi's Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer and published his comment as he opined. This is the general practice of how reporters take comments from the relevant stakeholders.