Telecom regulator has recommended the government doubling the charge of international outgoing telephone calls to 12 countries including the United Kingdom, Maldives, Iraq and France where a large number of Bangladeshis live in.
As per the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) proposals, charge for landline calls to UK should be increased to Tk30 per minute from Tk16 and for mobile phone calls to Tk30 from Tk20.
Both landline and mobile calls to Maldives, where thousands of Bangladeshis work, have been proposed to increase to Tk80 per minute from Tk40.
International incoming call termination charge, however, was recommended to be slashed which many said would have no benefit at all at the user end.
In a letter to the government recently, BTRC said it made the recommendations after having been requested by two International Gateway (IGW) operators for increasing the charges.
For France, the charge should be Tk35 per minute compared to Tk16 now while for Oman it has been proposed to increase to Tk40 per minute from Tk27.
And the landline callers to Iraq may have to count Tk18 a minute which is now Tk12 while mobile phone users may see an increase of per minute charge to Tk20 from Tk14.
BTRC said calling charge to Jordan should be increased up to Tk15 a minute from Tk10 per minute. The charge for calls to Morocco it would be Tk32 from Tk24 currently.
Charge hike proposal has also been made for calls to other five countries – Algeria, Chad, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leon.
