THE TELECOM regulator is preparing a fresh directive for the mobile phone operators to introduce subscriber-specific compensation system for call drops. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission officials said the new directive is being prepared as the operators did not comply with a previous BTRC directive in this regard, as per a report.
The operator doesn’t have to provide mass compensation to users when its dropped call rate is below the 3 per cent benchmark. The BTRC on January 19 directed the mobile phone companies to compensate their subscribers with a mandatory one-minute talk-time for every call drop.
According to BTRC directives, for the last few months the users have been experiencing difficulties such as losing connection or mute calls because of poor network quality. However, the Association of Mobile Telephone Operators of Bangladesh in a letter to the BTRC on January 21 said the operators needed more consultations on the call drop issue.
The operators, which earlier introduced call drop compensation as a promotional tool voluntarily, are yet to comply with the BTRC order. According to the Quality of Service directive of the BTRC, the operators have to ensure 95-97 per cent call success rate with a maximum 2-3 per cent dropped call rate.
Officials of the mobile phone operators, however, said making the mobile operators pay for call drops would be unfair as other operators are also engaged with the transmission process. Bad or sub optimal weather could reduce the quality of calls. Frequent cutting up of roads for various utility works would also have the same effect. Power shortages for considerable periods of time could reduce the capacity of generators or IPS which could shutdown equipment. For international calls, IGWs could face problems for which the mobile operators should not be held liable.
As per current BTRC rules subscribers have to be compensated if they experience a call drop rate of beyond 3 percent – in other words, for every hundred calls, if four are dropped then the operators must compensate for one only. But this method of calculation is flawed – why should the rate be fixed thus? In India the Telenor Group (known as Uninor) is offering a free call for every call dropped – surely its subsidiary in Bangladesh Grameenphone could do the same. So BTRC should not even accept a rate of 3 percent but 0 percent – if Uninor can do this in India out of their own will – why can’t we incorporate this rule for all companies?
It costs less than a cent to make mobile calls – based on high volume usages, so instead of asking operators to compensate by money – which could potentially bankrupt them, BTRC could easily ask them to compensate – it would be a win-win deal for everyone. But our citizens should not have to face the problems of facing even a single minute of call drops again.
