BTTB to charge Tk 5 peak-hour call charge for its mobile users
Star Report
Telecoms watchdog Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday approved the call tariff for the mobile phones of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), which is now expected to launch its service before the year-end."The commission has approved the proposed call tariff for BTTB's mobile phone," a senior BTRC official told The Daily Star yesterday. State-owned telecoms monopoly BTTB had proposed call charges for its postpaid cell phones at Tk 5 a minute during the peak hours between 8:00am and 8:00pm and Tk 2 a minute during off-peak hours. The zonal call tariff will be Tk 3 a minute and inter-zonal Tk 5 a minute, sources said. BTTB officials said the mobile phone subscribers will be able to make calls on zonal fixed-phones. They said the call charge for prepaid segment would be Tk 4 a minute during peak hours and Tk 2.6 a minute during off-peak hours. All the tariffs do not include Value Added Tax (VAT). The post-paid phone subscribers will have to pay a monthly rent of Tk 350 plus VAT. The BTTB will charge Tk 4,500 for post-paid connection and Tk 3,000 for prepaid connection. Subscribers will have to buy handsets separately. The BTTB, which has failed to launch its much-talked-about 2.5 lakh GSM (global system for mobile communications) cellphones by December 16, has extended the deadline until December 30. Sources said it is trying to soft-launch the service this month, but the service will be available to the public early next year. All the four private mobile phone operators have, meanwhile, agreed in principle to provide the BTTB mobile phones with interconnections.
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