The country’s lone mobile number portability (MNP) operator, Infozillion, keeps witnessing slump in business buffeted by low turnout of service seekers.
Around 9 lakh mobile phone users out of a total 16.55 crore took the MNP services and Infozillion made around Tk12 crore in revenues in the last 16 months since its launch in October 2018.
Until Sunday in the current month, Infozillion’s MNP porting came down below 30,000, compared to monthly average of 60,000 porting.
The company, however, projected minimum one lakh subscribers every month before launching the scheme, first of its kind in the country.
MNP is a service where mobile phone users can switch their operators without changing their existing 11-digit numbers. Mobile phone users have to pay Tk57 charge for availing the service.
“We witnessed very low turnout for MNP service in February. Our business is suffering from lack of service seekers. They are on the declining every month,” Infozillion Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Zulfikar told Dhaka Tribune on Sunday.
He said the government’s policy support and more customer communication were required to revive the MNP service.
‘MNP is an empowerment tool for the mobile phone users and pushes mobile operators to improve their service quality. I believe with proper market communication and regulatory support we will be doing better in the future,” he said.
Industry insiders said lack of customer communication was one of the key reasons for the service gaining no momentum.
They said majority of the mobile phone users were unaware of the service.
In November, Infozillion requested the telecom regulator for reducing its revenue sharing to 5% from the 15% it had agreed with BTRC before launching the service above one year back.
The company argues that as it earned less than its projection, it will share its earning with the government at a reduced rate.
Infozillion was awarded the licence in December 2017 with a fee of Tk11.6 crore. The operator launched the MNP service in October 2018.
Revenue sharing provision was waved for Infozillion for the first year as the service was new in the country. The company is now liable to share a 15% of its revenue after the initial year. The waiver deadline ended in October, last year.
A BTRC official told Dhaka Tribune as only one company was awarded licence for the entire MNP service, the revenue sharing of 15% was justified.
“Infozillion is enjoying monopoly in business but the company applied for reducing their revenue sharing to 5%. The proposal is under consideration and we will send it to the ministry for decision,” he said.
