Orange Mobile decries ‘unreasonably high’ 2G licence renewal fee

AMMAN — Orange Mobile on Sunday criticised a decision by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) to charge it JD156.4 million for renewing its second generation (2G) licence, describing the amount as “unreasonably high”.

Orange Jordan, which recently started talks with the TRC to set a price for renewing its 2G licence, said the TRC sent a letter instructing it to pay a fee of JD156.4 million for the renewal and usage of its 12.5 MHz bandwidth in the 900 MHz spectrum by May 9. 

“Orange Mobile considers this amount to be unreasonably high, by all international standards and benchmarks... which has also been confirmed by Orange’s own comprehensive study that was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers,” the company said in a statement sent to The Jordan Times.

The TRC said it contracted a global consultation company to conduct a study before it set the rate for renewing the licence, and that it adopted the results of the study, which took into consideration the current value of these frequencies in the local market.

Orange Mobile’s licence ends May 8, according to a TRC statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times. The commission said the licence will be renewed for the next 15 years.

Citing a 150 per cent rise in electricity prices in 2012 and last year’s increase of the special tax, the Orange Mobile statement said this latest decision by the TRC would have “unbearable consequences” on its “capacity to invest in and develop its mobile and fixed networks, as well as its capacity to acquire 4G/LTE frequencies in the future”.

The TRC has indicated that a failure to pay the fee by May 9 would result in the company’s 2G services being halted, which would affect the telecom services of four million subscribers.

Mobile penetration in Jordan reached 156 per cent at the end of 2013, with 10.3 million subscriptions, according to official figures.