Dialog files action against TRC
The country’s largest mobile operator, Dialog Axiata PLC has filed action in courts against the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) over propagating unfair practices in giving out certain spectrums.
They allege that a 1800 4G band used mainly for broadband services to provide Internet which is a much sought after spectrum telecommunication frequency had been allocated to Mobitel (headed by President Maithripala Sirisena’s brother, Kumarasinghe Sirisena) by the telecommunications regulator without open competitive bidding.
They say that it was ‘based’ on ‘an administrative decision which is not correct stating the opportunity to make a competitive bid was not given. The court case was preempted by an appeal (as the original request was denied) Dialog Axiata filed in 2017 to the RTI Commission requesting the TRC information on confirmation of whether or not there was an allocation of 7.5 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz frequency band to the state-controlled service provider Mobitel, if such an allocation was made, whether due process was followed with respect to this allocation and in particular whether any or all of the following processes were adhered to by the TRC in its capacity of being the custodian of valuable and scarce state resources.
Dialog had also wanted to know if evidence of a competitive bidding process in line with the commitments to “Good Governance” of the government was followed with respect to the valuation of the scarce resource and ongoing fees to be levied etc.
The RTI Commission directed the TRC, chaired by the then President’s Secretary Austin Fernando, to reverse its earlier decision not to release the information but the Commission warned that the discretion exercised by TRC in such actions was not unfettered but must be exercised ‘in accordance with law and subject to the application of the RTI Act, absent a clearly applicable exemption …which overrides the public interest.’
Following the direction, the TRC released the information to the Commission on April 3, 2018, after which Dialog went to courts.