Country’s mobile phone operators are facing various allegations, including frequent call drops, network unavailability and slow internet speed, which deprive some 145.111 million phone users of quality services.
According to information provided by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), phone users lodged some 3,522 complaints against the mobile phone operators from December 7 to 31 last year.
Of them, Grameenphone faced 1,973 allegations while Robi 604, Airtel221, Banglalink 612, Teletalk 104 and Citycell eight.
While talking to UNB, Posts, Telecommunications and IT Minister Mustafa Jabbar termed the call-drop rate alongside the slow internet speed ‘alarming’.
To overcome the situation, he asked the BTRC to conduct stricter monitoring against the telecom companies throughout the month of February, saying they will take action, including cancellation of licences if needed, based on the surveillance.
“The harassment of customers won’t be tolerated. There’ll be no compromise with the mobile phone operators. Fixing those challenges will be our first priority,” the minister said.
He also noted that Bangladesh cannot be digitised if quality mobile service and fast internet speed at a reasonable price are not ensured.
Md Ariful Haque, a Grameenphone user, told UNB that his calls end abruptly and this has been happening on a more frequent basis nowadays, not to mention 3G internet speed often shifting to 2G.
Robi user Md Jahangir Alam and Banglalink subscriber Sharna echoed Ariful.
BTRC Director General (Engineering and Operation) Colonel Md Mustafa Kamal told UNB that they conducted a survey in Mymensingh and Sylhet divisions using the state-of-the-art machines to assess the operators’ service quality.
He said they put forward the survey findings to the operators and instructed them to take necessary actions. “Such surveys will gradually be conducted in all the divisions and appropriate steps will be taken.”
