3 telecos fined

The High Court yesterday declared illegal the use of Bangladesh national anthem as ringtone or callers' tune on mobile phones and charging subscribers money for this service.
The court in a verdict also fined Grameenphone, Banglalink and Aktel (now known as Robi) Tk 50 lakh each for using the national anthem as a business tool.
Interesting, the court did not ask for the fine to be paid to the government coffer, rather it instructed the mobile phone service operators to pay it to three welfare organisations, including Kidney Research Centre and National Heart Foundation.
It asked the operators to pay the sum to the institutions within 30 days after getting the certified copy of the verdict.
The HC bench of Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury and Justice Farah Mahbub delivered the verdict after hearing a writ petition that was filed in 2006. Kalipada Mridha, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the petition as public interest litigation stating that the three mobile phone service operators had illegally been using the national anthem as ringtone or callers' tune for business purpose.
The petitioner said as per the existing law, playing of the national anthem arbitrarily is illegal and also derogatory. He said using the national anthem as ringtone on mobile phones is a criminal offence.
The HC in 2006 issued a rule upon the government authorities concerned and three mobile phone service operators to explain as to why the use of the national anthem tune as ringtone or callers' tune on mobile phones and the charging of money from subscribers for the services by the operators should not be declared illegal.
After holding a hearing on the rule, the HC bench yesterday delivered the verdict.
Barrister Masud Ahmed Sayeed appeared for the writ petitioner, while Deputy Attorney General Khurshid Alam represented the government.
Mobile phone service operators, however, refused to make any comments on the HC judgment before receiving the copy of the verdict.
A caller tune is the music a caller hears on his or her phone while making a call. The tune replaces the regular tone that lets the caller know that the phone is ringing on the other end.
Usually local content providers make the value added service for mobile phone service operators. It is assumed that the yearly turnover for the value added service (VAS) market is around Tk 200 crore and it grows by 35 percent a year.
The SMS (text), ringtone, callers' tune and interactive voice response (IVR) based services retain the major share of the value added service market. Industry insiders estimated that the contribution of VAS to the operators' revenues increased to 5 percent from 3 percent.