Call drop rate within limit: BTRC survey

Amid repeated complaints from users of being cut off during mobile phone calls, the telecom regulator yesterday said the rate of call drop in Bangladesh is still within the limit.   

The benchmark for the call drop rate is 2 per cent for the mobile operators, whereas it ranged from 0.18 per cent to 0.37 per cent for the top carriers.

Grameenphone, the largest operator, had a 0.18 per cent call drop, followed by Banglalink 0.31 per cent and Robi 0.37 per cent.

State-run Teletalk was the worst performer, with a 1.31 per cent call drop.

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) disclosed the data after conducting a comprehensive survey titled "Mobile Operators Quality of Service Drive Test of Dhaka City."

The survey was conducted on 13,027 call samples covering 1,121 kilometres of area from January 23 to February 8 this year.

The Bangladesh Mobile Phone Subscribers Association rejected the results of the survey.

"The BTRC survey has failed to portray the real picture of the quality of telecom services," Mohiuddin Ahmed, president of the association, told The Daily Star.

The results would have been much worse if the survey was conducted by a third-party surveyor, he said.

According to the survey, Grameenphone and Robi were the best performers in 4G download speed with 5.72 Mbps. But both of them failed to reach the standard of more than 7 Mbps set by the BTRC.

Banglalink 4G data speed hit a maximum of 4.94 Mbps, while Teletalk's figure was the lowest at 2.82 Mbps.

The survey results came at a time when the BTRC received a record number of complaints on the quality of service from subscribers.

The regulator received 4,480 complaints between November 2020 and February 2021. The complaints regarding the quality of service accounted for 33 per cent of all grievances reported, BTRC data showed.

The complaints regarding the problem of SIM block and data speed came second and third, respectively. The highest number of complaints came against Robi and Airtel, followed by Grameenphone, Teletalk and Banglalink.

The survey showed that the customers in Dhaka city were getting a maximum of 5.7 Mbps internet speed although they were paying for 8 Mbps.

The survey verified whether mobile phone operators were serving customers as per the rules issued by the commission in 2016 on the quality of service.

The rules state that the download speed for 4G services must be at least 8 Mbps.

The success rate of a call connecting the receiver was within the benchmark of seven seconds for all the operators, except Teletalk.

The BTRC first conducted the quality of service test in December 2016. Compared to the test results of 2016, the situation of calls getting dropped has improved this year.

But that is not the case when it comes to internet speed.

Operators say the speed of internet does not depend only on the operator. Some other issues, including base transceiver station, fibre optic cable connection and spectrum, also play a part.

In a statement yesterday, Grameenphone said it was working on modernising the network, installing new towers, using additional spectrum, and keeping optical fibre in place. 

Shahed Alam, chief corporate and regulatory officer of Robi Axiata, said 3Mbps speed was more than enough to watch a high-definition (HD) quality video on mobile internet or carry out any other work. The

The average speed of 5.6 Mbps was enough to meet the requirements of the customers, he said.

He said there needed to be at least 80 to 100 MHz of radio-frequency. 

"Most of our sites are not connected by the fibre network.

In addition, not all customers have a quality device yet, which is very important to get the best experience using internet."

As of December 2020, Bangladesh ranked 135th out of 139 countries in terms of internet speed, according to Okla, a US-based company.

BTRC Deputy Director (Media) Zakir Hossain Khan did not respond to a text message on mobile users' rejection of the survey results.

He earlier said the commission was conducting tests across the country to ensure quality customer service. 

"Once the overall picture emerges, the commission will decide what action can be taken against the operators that fail to ensure quality."