Staff Reporter :
The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has decided to raise the mobile talk time recharge limit to a maximum of Tk 2000 from the existing Tk 1000 to facilitate high-volume data package purchase by pre-paid users.
According to BTRC officials, the Commission has recently sent a proposal in this regard to the Telecommunications Ministry for approval.
“After the ministry approves the proposal, we will issue the order for the operators. If the Ministry has any other opinion on the matter, then we will also look into that,’ a BTRC official told the reporter on Sunday.
“We have some high-value data packs or bundles that cost about Tk 1,400 which regular balance pre-paid users have not. When they go for a recharge they are barred because of the BTRC limit of Tk 1,000. So, to ease that barrier we requested the regulator to increase the maximum limit to Tk 2000,” a senior official of a mobile company said.
The Ministry officials, however, said that increase in maximum recharge limit might facilitate illegal VoIP. “We are still analysing it. We might lower the one-go recharge to prevent illegal VoIP,” a Ministry official said.
Currently, almost all the retailers allow recharge of more than Tk 1,000 violating the law, it was alleged. However, there is no lowest limit set by the regulator, but the retail recharge points allow Tk 10 as the lowest recharge amount.
The BTRC also bars more than Tk 1,000 daily recharge for pre-paid mobile from the same recharge points. “As the devices at the retail level are not barred with logic, there is a chance that retailers could misuse that,” said another senior official of a mobile company.
