Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) published a guideline for toll-free phone services in both local and overseas connections.
The regulator made it public on Monday. The guideline got BTRC approval last week.
Toll-free phone customers are usually the emergency service sector organisations like police, health and fire. If a service-seeker calls to a toll-free phone of a service provider, the caller will not be charged.
Under the 2G licence renewal guideline, mobile phone operators need to ensure toll-free phone service for those organisations.
“Now the launch of a guideline will empower customers and make the market more mature,” Md Giashuddin Ahmed, vice chairman of BTRC, told the Dhaka Tribune.
The regulator has set 0888-XXXXXXX numbers for international toll-free services and 0800-XXXXXXX numbers for local
toll-free services, according to BTRC directive.
Interested business entities and service providers can choose the last seven digits on first-come-first-served basis.
All emergency numbers will be based on three digits.
For international toll-free phone call services, the call rate is $0.075 per minute while revenues will be shared by three parties – the international gateway (IGW), interconnection exchange (ICX) and BTRC.
For local toll-free services, the call rate has been fixed at Tk0.60 per minute.
Number allocation fees is Tk25,000 and early renewal fees at Tk12,000 for local numbers. For the international service, the respective fees is set at Tk50,000 and Tk24,000.
Many countries have toll-free phone services. All the European Union countries are using 112 numbers for toll- free calls and Pakistan 117, and India uses different numbers for different services, said BTRC.
“It has also clearly been specified in the National Numbering Planning, but operators are yet to provide the services,” said a BTRC official.
The BTRC in its recent draft of Customer Protection Guideline also said toll-free numbers will be made mandatory for the mobile phone operators.
The toll-free emergency numbers will be for police, ambulance services, hospitals, fire services, coast guards, border guards and immigration services, according to the draft guideline.
Earlier, the BTRC made the customer care number of mobile phone companies toll-free.