Customers call for quick solution to telcos’ malpractices

Mohammad Abdul Kaium, a Banglalink subscriber, lost Tk55 last year from his account without enjoying any services. 

He was so shocked over the incident that he refrained from making any call for months and approached the Banglalink call centre to know the reason for losing his money.

"I was treated as a pendulum between the regional and the main customer care centres of Banglalink until I served a legal notice to the operator," said Kaium while sharing his complaint at the public hearing on the telecommunication services and the regulatory commission's activities on Sunday.  

Following the legal notice, Kaium got back the money that was taken away from his account.  "This is a theft by Banglalink and is not a single case. They are stealing thousands of people's money," he alleged.

Like Kaium, many other telecom customers from different parts of the country presented their complaints before the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and urged it to take necessary action to stop such malpractices of the operators.

Sheikh Md Niamul Islam, a resident of Chandpur, alleged that people in his neighbourhood have been suffering due to a poor Grameenphone network.

He also said the internet service providers (ISPs) in Chandpur have held the consumers hostage by forming an alliance and charging high rates ignoring the tariffs determined by the government.

They also complained regarding the internet speed, mobile phone and SIM registration, customer service of mobile operators and called for solutions to these problems.

In response, BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder said the commission will take necessary action regarding the complaints. He said ''Consumers who are not literate and bold are suffering more silently."

The BTRC chairman promised to deal with the problems on a priority basis and to take action against the mobile operators and ISPs.

At the public hearing, Md Malek from Pabna and Mohammed Monirul Islam from Cumilla complained about the slow internet speed and high prices charged by illegal ISPs.

In response to these allegations, Director General of BTRC's Engineering and Operations Division Brig Gen Md Ehsanul Kabir said if they receive any specific allegation, they will take clear actions against the ISPs without disclosing the complainant's identity.

Commenting on improving the call experience and internet speed, Director General of BTRC's Spectrum Division Brig Gen Md Shahidul Alam said the regulatory commission is working to allot an additional 400MHz spectrum by the end of 2022.

Director General of BTRC's Systems and Services Division Brig Gen Md Nasim Parvez presented the implementation report of the last hearing held in 2019.

He said 60% of the 25 problems that came up at the public hearing in 2019 has been solved, and work to solve the of the rest of the problems is going on.

Regarding the country's mobile internet speed ranking in the Ookla's speed test, Md Nasim Parvez said, '"Ookla's report is not acceptable to us due to its technical and limitation. We are analysing the report and we will come up with our statement soon."

BTRC Vice-Chairman Subrata Roy Maitra, Commissioners Md Mohiuddin Ahmed, Abu Syed Diljar Hussain and AKM Shahiduzzaman were present at the hearing.