Three of the top four mobile operators of in country have reduced their internet price by 25% for low volume users from this month following the request from the regulator after demonstrations were staged by a number of information and communications technology based working groups and students.
Grameenphone (GP), the market leader, has asked for a 15-day extension from the regulatory body, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), to declare their reduced price.
Banglalink, Robi and Airtel have fixed the prices of their “pay-as-you-go” or P1 package rates to Tk0.015/Kilobyte (KB) which was previously Tk0.020/KB. The new price will cost users Tk15 per Megabyte (MB) of internet use.
Regarding the delay in announcing the revised price, a spokesperson of GP told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are already in the process of developing the P1 package and make it more affordable and user friendly for our valued customers. Beyond tariff reduction, we will also be incorporating the best product features to completely eliminate the bill shock the customers experience while using ‘pay-as-you-go’ internet packages.”
According to GP sources, the leading mobile operator is trying to introduce a more dynamic price which is why they need more time. They said the proposed P1 design will include monthly bill capping, proactive system generated volume update, free of cost volume update tools and opt-out option for its customers.
Last week, the mobile operators submitted their package proposals to BTRC. Later, the regulatory body sent a compensation report to the telecommunication ministry.
Md Giashuddin, vice-chairman of BTRC said: “It is good to hear that the operators have reduced the price of internet but from our side, we expect more reduction on the price.”
On the other hand, Julius Chowdhury, an organiser of the demonstrators who demanded price cuts in internet tariffs from mobile operators, said: “We heard about the price reduction but it is nothing close to what we demanded”.
“The operators have deceived us. We mainly demanded volume based price reduction on a much higher scale but they reduced only 25%.”
“We need to take a tougher stance on the issue,” he added.
Earlier, the protesters demanded the internet price to be fixed at Tk0.010/MB or Tk10/GB of usage.
Though BTRC’s report show the price of per MB of internet to be Tk15 for the mobile operators, Robi, the third largest mobile operator, claimed they are offering 5MB of internet volume for Tk6, 20MB for Tk20 and 400MB for Tk50, in a press release on Sunday. These packages however have day binding usage.
Robi’s press statement said the company has introduced an array of affordable internet data bundle packages to satisfy the need of the youth in the country. A majority of the country’s youth enjoy sharing, updating, and uploading their daily activities online, be acknowledged by their social network/friends, and look for high speed data access.