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Mobile phone charge

23 December 2004, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By M A S Molla, BAAS, Dhaka
23 December 2004, 18:00 PM
The mobile phones of BTTB would be in market at the end of this month. The call charge is supposed to vary in between 2 and 5 taka per minute as has been announced recently. The charge would be Tk 3 for intra-regional and Tk 5 for interregional calls at peak hours. Bangladeshis pay the highest call charge (Tk 7) in the world, though we are a poor nation!

The Parliamentary Committee on the matter has suggested that the private mobile companies decrease the call charge to Tk 5 at peak hours, and Tk 3 for special non-peak periods. Is the proposed decrease logical? How the call charge can differ so much (BTTB Tk 3, others Tk 5)?

Why would not others follow the BTTB? The normal call charge per minute should not be more than Tk 4 in case of any company. The BTTB can also review its interregional call charge. I am not interested in the so called non-peak hour special offers. Mobile is not a gossiping machine anyway. Necessity does not know peak and non-peak hours! However, if that special case exists, the charge may be just half the normal, i.e., Tk 2 per minute.

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Would the Parliamentary Committee realise this truth? What do the competing companies think? They have to do business competing with BTTB- isn't?