A large number of smartphones that BTRC was supposed to distribute among freedom fighters and relatives of Liberation War martyrs remains unaccounted for, with sources within the telecom regulator saying they were clueless about where the phones were.
Four private mobile phone operators – Grameenphone, Robi, Airtel and Banglalink – sponsored a total of 325 smartphones in this regard, with 3G-enabled SIMs, through the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (Amtob), after securing 3G licences last September.
However, sources at the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) told the Dhaka Tribune that over half of those smartphones had not been distributed to the intended recipients.
On December 31 last year, many of the smartphones were distributed among freedom fighters and martyrs’ relatives at a ceremony attended by the then telecom minister Rashed Khan Menon, information minister Hasanul Haq Inu, liberation war affairs minister Shahjahan Khan as well as the telecom secretary, BTRC chairman and AMTOB secretary general.
Under the plan to provide 325 phones to freedom fighters and family members of martyrs, three mobile phone operators sponsored 81 smartphones each, while Grameenphone gave 82 smartphones; the current market price for each phone is Tk8,790.
BTRC sources, however, said around 170 of the smartphones – that are valued at over Tk13 lakh – had not been distributed yet.
Seeking anonymity, a BTRC official who was involved with the distribution process, told the Dhaka Tribune that a maximum of 130 to 140 smartphones were distributed at the ceremony in December, while a few more might have also been distributed later.
“Surely most of the sets and SIMs were not distributed... If the handsets were in BTRC, we would know about it. But we do not have a clue about where the rest of the phones are,” the official added.
The regulator issued a letter on June 1 to BTRC Director (legal and license) MA Taleb Hossen, who was in charge of the distribution process, directing him to submit a report by June 8 on how many phones had been distributed so far.
However, Taleb, who had been working as a deputy director of system and services division when the phones were distributed, failed to hand in a report by the deadline.
BTRC sources also said Taleb had been ignoring the regulator’s directive as well as confronting the official who had issued the letter, even though it was sent with the consent of the BTRC chairman.
When asked about the issue, BTRC spokesperson Zakir Hossain Khan said: “Most of the handsets that were kept for freedom fighters have already been distributed.”
When asked about an exact number of phones that had been distributed, Zakir, however, said he needed some time to find out the figure.
Hemayet Uddin Bir Bikrom, a decorated freedom fighter who had received a phone at the ceremony in December, said he had information that most of the listed people had not received any handsets or SIMs. He added: “I have a plan to inform the issue to the high-ups of the ruling party when I get a chance.”
Meanwhile, Amtob or any of the four mobile operators refused to comment on the issue.
However, an official from one of the operators, on condition of anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune: “It is very easy to find out how many of the SIMs that we had given to the regulator are currently active; but we cannot do that as the regulator was involved.”