A High Court bench yesterday gave eight weeks to the government and the telecom regulator to come to a final decision on the proposed merger of Robi and Airtel.

Of the eight weeks, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has six weeks to give a final opinion on the merger and send its recommendation to the government. After that, the government has two weeks to give its decision on the matter, said Tanjib-ul-Alam, counsellor of the two operators.

“The court thinks a lot of time has already been wasted, which has also impacted the total telecom industry,” he added.

Robi and Airtel, which are currently third and fourth in the market respectively, opened talks on a possible merger to become the country's second largest mobile operator, at the end of August and formally applied to the BTRC on September 17.

The operators hoped to complete the merger by January this year but the regulator is taking long to give its decision. As a result, Robi and Airtel are unable to take any important decisions about their organisations as everything is resting on the regulator's verdict, Alam said.

The regulator gave preliminary approval to the merger on September 29 last year with some conditions.

But it dithered in giving the final decision. In the meantime, the BTRC drafted in two professors to conduct market study and gauge the socio-economic implications of the merger.

About the court order, a top BTRC official said six weeks would be enough time to complete the market study, so there would be no need to apply for a time extension from the court.

In another move, the court yesterday voided an appeal from the Consumer Association of Bangladesh, which said the merger would be against customers' best interests.

According to the plan, the merged entity, which will operate under the brand name of Robi, will be 70 percent-owned by Axiata Group, Malaysia's largest carrier.

Bharti Airtel will have 25 percent stakes in the new company. Shares of Japan's NTT DOCOMO in Robi will be diluted to 5 percent from 8.41 percent of Robi now.

As of December 2015, Robi's active subscriber base stood at 2.84 crore and Airtel's at1.07 crore.

Market leader Grameenphone has 5.66 crore subscribers, according to the BTRC.