Licence date

Just a small anecdote on sources of roll-out delays.

Our radio licence was signed (or at least dated) 4th of July 2007. We received the licence and information on its terms and conditions on 24th of August.

A regulatory requirement is that we roll out within 12 months of date of the issue (not receipt) of the licence.

Almost 8 weeks have passed since the date of issue of licence. An 8 week delay (15% of our roll-out time period) is usually very material. Thankfully in our case, the issue is academic as we intend to roll out well within the (now)10 month timeframe.

But I got the distinct impression that the reason for the delay was quite trivial. The physical licence document had to be sent to a third party for ........ binding!

Must admit though, the binding was quite nice!

Now the Real Work Begins

At a low key ceremony last Friday, 24th August 2007, we received a licence from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to operate a national radio station.

Though it was a rather tortuous process that took 6 months longer than I anticipated, reaction by our co-attendees at the licence presentment ceremony (TM Net, who received an IPTV licence 3 years after their application) told me that I should be thankful that it took the time that it did. Yes, yes, the licence terms were a little onerous and not quite consistent with objectives and the business plan that we submitted with our application, but as an officer at MCMC said, "Just be grateful you got a licence!".

And grateful we are. And now the real work begins!