By Adama Makasuba
The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority [PURA] has issued Comium mobile GSM operator a fortnight ultimatum to pay D69.1 million debt amid suspension threat.
The regulatory body said Comium failed to pay licenses and spectrum fees for the period of 2020 and 2021 and international gateway levies, which formed a fundamental part of their licensing conditions.
Meanwhile, Matarr Touray, senior economists told reporters at a news conference that “In terms of what they owe, we are talking about license and spectrum fees for the year 2020/2021 and both years combined they owed D65.3 million.”
“Now in term of what they owe as related to international gateway a liability that’s to be paid to PURA for onward sharing with other stakeholders is D3.8 million. So, in total cumulatively is D69.1 million,” he break it down.
But the director general of the regulatory body, Yusupha M Jobe, dismissed reports of suspension circulating on social media, saying the GSM operator would only be subjected to effective suspension if it failed to settle its debt beyond fourteen days.
“By the way that notice of suspension is not a suspension and this should be made very clear, contrary to what you have seen on social media in accordance with our regulations, we are to advise any service providers who is defaulting that, we intend to cut their services [and] suspend their operation if they do not make good on what is required on in accordance with our rules and regulations,” he explained.
He continued in his explanation that “And this is why the provider [Comium] has been given two weeks to regularise and correct the abnormalities so that we can restore their operation and not move to the second level which will involve invoking suspension.”
According to him, one of the reasons by PURA is that “Comium has not been paying licensing fees and spectrum fee, which is a regulatory requirement for highest provider. Secondly, in accordance with our rules, all service providers are supposed to give information to PURA on their activities and especially on their plans of investment.”
So, Comium has been defaulting on their payment and in ensuring that they comply with the rules and regulations as per their licensing agreement, he added.