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BTTB mobile phone

13 January 2005, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Khalequez Zaman Kabul, Afghanistan
13 January 2005, 18:00 PM
On 28 December, 2004, the prime minister inaugurated the much talked about BTTB mobile phone. Before the inauguration people had a big expectation that the BTTB mobile phone would offer its services for affordable prices. After the inauguration, as soon as we came to know the call charge and connecting fee, we were simply frustrated. Bangladesh is one of the few countries in the world where the mobile phone companies are charging abnormally high prices both for incoming as well as for outgoing calls. In Bangladesh because of short duration of pre-paid cards people are making unnecessary calls to use their units and the mobile phone companies are making sky-high profits from the poor people. Although we have a Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) which is supposed to look after public interest, but unfortunately we are not finding its role as expected.

The Daily Star in its 4 January, 2005, issue published a news analysis with the heading "BTTB Mobile Puzzle" where it revealed that "Private operators usually refrain from disclosing their financial statements to the press as those are not listed with the stock exchanges. But sources told The Daily Star that one private operator's net profit jumped more than 52 percent during the year 2003, while another company contributed 35 percent to the total revenue of its parent company abroad." If this trend of high call rate continues I guess only the foreign countries will be benefited.

Recently, when I was coming home via Delhi, at the Delhi airport I saw an Indian company selling calling card from Bangladesh to India and other countries. When I asked about the calling charge the sales woman informed me that it would cost only Tk 12 per minute from Bangladesh to any province in India. But if we call from Bangladesh to India with any mobile phone, it costs around Tk 35 per minute.

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I would therefore urge the relevant government department to immediately reduce the call charge of all mobile phones and increase duration of pre-paid cards at least to three months for the greater interest of the country. Otherwise, foreign companies will introduce different technologies to grab this business.