Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Grameen Telecom, the local shareholder of the country’s largest mobile phone operator Grameenphone was not ready to pay any fine for ‘illegal’ activities committed by Norwegian firm Telenor, a company official said.
“Grameenphone is run by the Telenor management. So Telenor is to blame for any illegal activity. Why should we pay for their repeated illegal activities in Bangladesh?” a high official of Grameen Telecom was quoted by The Daily Star on Saturday.
Telenor owns a 62 percent share, while Grameen Telecom holds the remaining stake in Grameenphone, launched in 1996. Telenor controls the management of the cellphone company.
“Grameen Telecom has no association with illegal call termination business through VoIP conducted by Grameenphone,” the official noted.
Bangladesh‘s telecom regulator fined Grameenphone Tk 1.68 billion and Tk 2.50 billion in separate cases for its involvement in illegal international call termination business through voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology.
