No immediate danger of GrameenPhone licence suspension

The Bangladeshi government indicated yesterday that it is not considering an immediate suspension of the operating licence of the country’s leading mobile provider GrameenPhone, a subsidiary of Norway’s Telenor Group, despite a state government commission calling for the prompt withdrawal of the cellco’s concession unless Telenor gives up a portion of its stake to reduce its ownership to a minority holding. The special commission came to its conclusions in a preliminary report last month based on its finding that the original licensing agreement in 1996 which created GrameenPhone as a joint venture with Grameen Bank was invalid. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith told Reuters: ‘We will wait to get the final report from the Commission hopefully… within the next two months.’