Dhaka: The tender for launching Mobile Number Portability (MNP) will be floated next month.

Credible sources at the Post and Telecommunications Ministry disclosed this to UNB.

‘MNP service will be launched by March next. A letter has been sent to the Finance Ministry for approval as there is a need for money for launching MNP and on getting approval we will ask the Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to call for tender,’ said Foyzur Rahman Chowdhury, secretary of Posts and Telecommunications Division.

MNP is a service that enables mobile users to change operators without changing their phone number.

BTRC has finalised the draft guidelines of MNP for making the work transparent and after that a draft copy was sent to the Post and Telecommunications Ministry, said BTRC secretary Sarwar Alam.

In the previous policy, there was no specific direction for appointing contractor firms, but later the Post and Telecommunications Division brought some changes in the draft policy to make the auction process for MNP licence transparent, said BTRC secretary.

According to the MNP draft, the bidders who will take part in the auction will be evaluated in some criteria. The evaluation committee will give numbers after evaluating their skills. Later, BTRC will publish a shortlist of bidders who qualify, and they will get the chance to take part in the auction.

The BTRC sources said after amendment, the bid earnest money is fixed Tk 10 lakh instead of Tk 5 lakh while the base price money is Tk one crore instead of Tk 50 lakh and Tk 20 lakh as annual license fee (instead of Tk 10 lakh and Tk one crore as bank guarantee instead of Tk 50 lakh.

Besides, the selected MNP operator will get license for 15 years and they have to share revenue with the government at 5.5 percent rate from the second year of the licence, it said.

Foreign bidders will get the chance to take part in the auction, apart from local ones.