BTRC responds to customer complaints after 9 months

Nearly nine months after raising questions and complaints about telecom services ahead of a public hearing, users have finally received responses from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

However, the responses account for less than 2 per cent of the 1,319 issues flagged by more than 200 users for the hearing on July 12 last year.

Some 165 citizens got the scope to attend the hearing, the second such event organised by the telecom regulator, following online registration.

Of the complaints, only 25 received responses, which were posted on the BTRC website last Thursday, the first such initiative for official reactions to end-level users' complaints and recommendations about telecom services.

One of the responses stated that the commission would not be implementing the recommendations coming last year from a cost model analysis on data pricing carried out by an International Telecommunication Union consultant.

The consultant had suggested raising internet prices, which would have turned it inconsistent with Bangladesh's socioeconomic realities. The BTRC has decided to instead start holding discussions with stakeholders to identify ways to reduce costs.

The executive committee of a Digital Bangladesh Taskforce in 2017 asked the telecom regulator to run the analysis to formulate a data pricing guideline, as done earlier for cost modelling benchmarks for voice and short message services.

The Digital Bangladesh Taskforce, which consists of senior ministers and top experts from the sector, is the highest policymaking body on digitalisation headed by the prime minister.

In another reaction, the BTRC said to have reduced the number of data and voice packages offered by four mobile operators altogether to 235, which was 359 in 2017, for customers' convenience.

The second-largest mobile carrier, Robi, has 150 active packages, down from 258 in 2017. Market leader Grameenphone has active 28 packages, Banglalink 31 and Teletalk 26.

Responding to why 4G handsets were priced at around $20 in India and about $90 in Bangladesh, the commission said assembling mobile devices for a long time had developed the neighbouring country's ecosystem, which included the presence of almost all of the global brands.

This industry has just been launched in Bangladesh and prices would hopefully go down in the near future, it said.

That the BTRC took up too much time to come up with the responses was acknowledged by Md Jahurul Haque, chairman of the telecom watchdog.

However, he thanked his staff for whittling them down to 25 after sifting through hundreds of questions and complaints.

He said public hearings help improve quality of operators' services on the basis of customers' feedback.

"Public hearing is always a very helpful way to address complaints of customers and so we are going to organise another hearing at the end of this month," said Haque.

The public hearing on March 30 is scheduled to be held at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh auditorium at Ramna in Dhaka. As in the past, interested participants will have to register online.