Mobile subscribers demand weekly public complaint hearings

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) should arrange weekly public hearings to take note of complaints, just like the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC)’s, demanded the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Users Association. 

The BERC holds the event every Tuesday and doing so will help the telecom watchdog upgrade its service quality, said the association while placing a 15-point demand before the BTRC chairman at his office yesterday.

In its 20-year-long journey, the telecom regulator organised two public hearings about the service quality and a couple of others on licencing guidelines.

The association also demanded that 25 per cent of any fine imposed on mobile operators by the regulator based on a complaint should go to the complainant.

This compensation practice has already been adopted by the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, said Mohiuddin Ahmed, the association’s president.

There is a huge number of unresolved complaints over poor network quality, slow data speed, bombarding of unwanted commercial messages and some other cases of fraudulence, the association said.

BTRC Chairman Md Jahurul Haque acknowledged the existence of the issues and stated that the government needed to amend the telecom act, Ahmed said.

The association also alleged that mobile carriers were using far less spectrum against what was required for the existing number of customers.

They are also not purchasing spectrum at sufficient volume as the price was very high, as a result of which coverage and service quality were not up to the mark, he said.

Spectrum is a state asset and it needs to be utilised for citizens. So spectrum prices need to be cut so that mobile operators avail sufficient spectrum and offer better services that will ultimately give a boost to the government exchequer as well, they said.

The government is getting more than half of the earnings from the mobile sector in the form of VAT, tax, revenue sharing and other charges.

The association also urged the telecom regulator to set up a laboratory to determine the quality of mobile handsets and identify health hazards.