Telcos refuse to compensate for call drops

Mobile phone operators are delaying the process of compensating their customers for call drops in a complete disregard for the telecommunication regulator's directive.

"We have issued an order to compensate customers from July 1 but I found no development yet," Tarana Halim, state minister for telecommunication, told The Daily Star yesterday.

In a meeting with the mobile operators on May 16, she cautioned the operators about call drops and instructed them to give free minutes as compensation from July 1.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission followed up the minister's warning by issuing a directive in the last week of June, asking operators to compensate from the second call drop in a day.

The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh said they need more consultation on the matter.

"We wrote to the regulator and asked for a meeting, which might be held on next Monday," said Nurul Kabir, secretary general of AMTOB.

Sohel Parvez, a resident of Bagerhat, said he experienced poor network quality.

"Call drops are frequent and the experience of using 3G was horrible, although I am using a high configuration mobile phone," he said.

On January 19, the BTRC made compensation for every call drop mandatory and the mobile operators have urged the telecommunication regulator for consultation and review of the directive.

Operators then said there are different reasons for call drops and they are not responsible for it all the time.

Placing their arguments, they said 3 percent of call drops are acceptable according to the International Telecommunication Union.

After several discussions, the regulator relaxed the directive and made the first call drop acceptable in a day. But if users get more call drops, they will get one minute from the second drop, according to the directive.

Different operators said there should be a limit to the amount a subscriber will be compensated for in a single day.

The BTRC yesterday appointed a company -- Anite Finland Ltd -- that will provide timely reports on call drops, call generating times and other service quality aspects, said senior officials of the organisation.

Currently, the regulator has no tool to measure call drops or any other service quality, and is fully dependent on the operators' own reports on their performance.

BTRC officials said they will be able to get the real picture soon and take action accordingly.