BTRC to audit Banglalink soon

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is preparing to audit the country's third-largest mobile phone operator Banglalink.

"We have now come to the final stage to select a firm to conduct the audit,” said a senior official at the BTRC wishing not to be named.

The telecoms regulator had published a notice last year seeking letters of interest from willing local and foreign firms.

The purview of the audit will range from regulatory to legal to technical to financial and other related issues.

In response to the notice, eight audit firms submitted their applications to get the job.

“The evaluation committee has already made a report and an audit firm will be appointed shortly,” said the official.

This is the second time the BTRC attempted to audit Banglalink — which had 3.5 crore users as of November last year — as the previous plan in 2017 was ditched by the commission for unknown reasons.

The BTRC has long been in a tussle with Grameenphone and Robi over settling the huge audit claims of Tk13,445 crore; the move to audit yet another mobile carrier may create further instability in the telecom sector, according to industry people.