Economic Reporter :
Despite enjoying protection measures from the government, the sole state owned mobile network operator Teletalk is now burdened with a number of problems including operational inefficiency and mismanagement
Over a decade has passed since the company launched its operation in 2004, but the company has so far failed to turn into a profitable entity for the government, allegedly due to irregularities and corruption.
A parliamentary watchdog recently came down hard on Teletalk and asked it to submit a new business plan so that the company can be transformed into a profitable one.
In a recent meeting, the parliamentary standing committee on Posts, Telecommunication and ICT ministry raised their voices over Teletalk’s irregularities, corruption, operational inefficiency and mismanagement.
However, the company has failed to come up to the watchdog with any clear picture or explanation on the issue.
The committee asked for an explanation from Teletalk on its involvement with illegal call termination, usage of unregistered SIM cards, irregularities and corruption.
However, Teletalk representatives claimed that news reports published in different national dailies on this matter were untrue.
According to state minister for Posts and Telecommunications Division, 10,805 Teletalk SIMs were seized in the last one year.
Now the standing committee has asked Teletalk to come up with a new ‘business plan’ on how to turn the company profitable and submit the report to the next committee meeting for discussions.
In July, mobile network operators Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink -jointly filed a letter of complaint against Teletalk claimeing around 25,000 Teletalk SIMs were being used for illegal VoIP.
It has caused a loss of around 75 paisa per minute for the government and 10 paisa for mobile operators, the letter said.
Imran Ahmed, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee, said Teletalk could not appropriately answer when asked about its corruption and irregularities.
The company also claimed the newspapers had not published any rejoinder from Teletalk.
“The standing committee asked, if the newspapers did not publish the rejoinders, why didn’t Teletalk take legal action against those papers? The committee didn’t get any appropriate answer in this regard,” he said.
All the state protections for Teletalk had been useless, Imran Ahmed said.
“Now our main objective is to revive the operator,” he added.
The Posts and Telecommunication division has formed a high-powered committee to investigate Teletalk’s involvement in corruption, illegal VoIP and irregularities.
Despite enjoying protection measures from the government, the sole state owned mobile network operator Teletalk is now burdened with a number of problems including operational inefficiency and mismanagement
Over a decade has passed since the company launched its operation in 2004, but the company has so far failed to turn into a profitable entity for the government, allegedly due to irregularities and corruption.
A parliamentary watchdog recently came down hard on Teletalk and asked it to submit a new business plan so that the company can be transformed into a profitable one.
In a recent meeting, the parliamentary standing committee on Posts, Telecommunication and ICT ministry raised their voices over Teletalk’s irregularities, corruption, operational inefficiency and mismanagement.
However, the company has failed to come up to the watchdog with any clear picture or explanation on the issue.
The committee asked for an explanation from Teletalk on its involvement with illegal call termination, usage of unregistered SIM cards, irregularities and corruption.
However, Teletalk representatives claimed that news reports published in different national dailies on this matter were untrue.
According to state minister for Posts and Telecommunications Division, 10,805 Teletalk SIMs were seized in the last one year.
Now the standing committee has asked Teletalk to come up with a new ‘business plan’ on how to turn the company profitable and submit the report to the next committee meeting for discussions.
In July, mobile network operators Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink -jointly filed a letter of complaint against Teletalk claimeing around 25,000 Teletalk SIMs were being used for illegal VoIP.
It has caused a loss of around 75 paisa per minute for the government and 10 paisa for mobile operators, the letter said.
Imran Ahmed, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee, said Teletalk could not appropriately answer when asked about its corruption and irregularities.
The company also claimed the newspapers had not published any rejoinder from Teletalk.
“The standing committee asked, if the newspapers did not publish the rejoinders, why didn’t Teletalk take legal action against those papers? The committee didn’t get any appropriate answer in this regard,” he said.
All the state protections for Teletalk had been useless, Imran Ahmed said.
“Now our main objective is to revive the operator,” he added.
The Posts and Telecommunication division has formed a high-powered committee to investigate Teletalk’s involvement in corruption, illegal VoIP and irregularities.
