BTRC sets rules for telecom services

The telecom regulator has set standards to ensure mobile operators' quality of services in a bid to improve customer satisfaction for both voice and data services.
The regulator will monitor the service quality on a regular basis and publish reports, depending on which the violators will be penalised.
Under the initiative, the regulator will examine the operators' service response time, call drops, signal-to-noise ratio, cross-talk, echo, interruptions and loudness levels.
The commission yesterday approved the guideline on the quality of service standards after consulting the operators, the process of which began in 2009, said Sunil Kanti Bose, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
The guideline was prepared following the conditions noted in the telecom law and in the operators' licence and was finalised after taking notes from the guidelines of other countries, Bose said.
A team of the regulator will monitor the quality of services through different tests and see whether the operators are providing the data service they have promised.
The quality of customer care will be evaluated to see if they are responding to customer complaints properly, Bose said.
“We will develop another detailed customer care quality guideline soon, so that the customer complaints get proper responses.”
The guideline will soon be sent to the operators so that they can follow it, he said.
The regulator has already purchased equipment to monitor the services and will purchase the equipment needed for preparing their reports, which they will submit to the regulator, a BTRC official said.
Upon auditing, BTRC will publish the results of the service quality on its website, he said.
The official said the regulator's evaluation will be thorough and will check the quality of services on the highways, railways and riverside.
The operators themselves maintain a standard in providing quality services, said TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh.
“The regulator should go through a proper consultation process if it wants to set any benchmark for quality services.”