Telcos blame poor services on low spectrum

Inadequate access to spectrum has become a barrier to improving quality and expanding services across the country by the operators.

The deteriorating service quality has forced many mobile phone users to lodge complaints for call drops, poor network coverage and unsuccessful calls in different parts of the country.

Consumers are also suffering for the poor quality of data services, despite being under a 3G network.

Operators raised the issue at different levels, including at recent meetings with the finance ministry, telecom division and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

They said they need additional spectrum to take advantage of the new possibilities of technology-driven social and economic development. With demand for data and voice traffic expected to rise rapidly in future, operators said it is essential that the government deploy sufficient spectrum for them.

“We can't deliver quality services due to a lack of spectrum,” said TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB).

Operators have taken all possible measures to improve their service quality, but it did not bring improvements at the expected level because of insufficient spectrum, said Kabir.

Spectrum relates to the radio frequencies allocated to the telecom industry for their services over the airwaves, which also have different bands.

According to a document presented by Md Nasim Parvez, director general of BTRC's spectrum division, at a summit on South Asian Telecommunication Regulators' Council in Dhaka last October, each operator in Bangladesh uses 28.4 Megahertz of spectrum on average. It is 70 to 110 MHz for each operator in a developed country.

In Malaysia, operators are using 56 MHz, while it is 41 MHz in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, operators in Bangladesh are serving more customers than the operators in developed countries, added the document.

The country has a total of 330 MHz of spectrum in six different bands, but the regulator has allocated only 182 MHz. Of the amount, the operators received only 117 MHz.

“Unused spectrum does not bring revenue for the government. Rather, if this spectrum is allocated or sold to the operators at a lower price, it will help improve service quality,” said Shahed Alam, executive vice president of Robi, at a pre-budget meeting with National Board of Revenue.

BTRC has even allocated some spectrum to non-mobile phone operators who are not using it, according to BTRC officials.

The government has also allocated a hefty amount of valuable spectrum to some government agencies, but those remain unused for years now.

BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood has acknowledged the problem and said they are taking measures to allocate more spectrums to the mobile operators.

“We have decided to allocate more spectrums with neutrality services,” said Mahmood.

Market leader Grameenphone is using 14.6 MHz of spectrum in the 1,800 band and 7.4 MHz in the 900 band. In 2013, they bought another 10 MHz in the 2,100 band for 3G services. The operator generates 22.25 crore calls a day for its six crore active customers.

Robi had 19.8 MHz in three bands; it got 16.6 MHz of Airtel's spectrum after the merger.

Banglalink has 20 MHz of spectrum in three different bands, while state owned Teletalk has 25.2 MHz. Citycell has 6.5 MHz of spectrum but it is currently out of service.

Operators also discussed high spectrum prices and technological neutrality, which affect service quality.

“Bangladesh may be the only country in the region operating telecom services without technological neutrality,” said Kabir of AMTOB.

Technology neutrality means the operators would have the choice to use their spectrum as they see fit. Neighbouring countries like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have already introduced it a couple of years ago, which improved service quality in those countries.

In 2013, the regulator assigned per MHz of spectrum in the 2100 band at a charge of $21 million. It is now recommending the floor price of spectrum at $25 million in the upcoming auction.

In addition, operators will have to pay a few million extra per MHz for technological neutrality.

As of February, there are around 13.97 crore active SIMs in Bangladesh, with 6.31 crore connected to the internet. Around 3 crore SIMs use 3G services.