To ensure accountability and consumer satisfaction, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has introduced new guidelines for mobile operators in the country.
The regulatory body has extended the validity of compensation minutes for every call drop suffered from 24 hours to 15 days.
According to the new directive, mobile subscribers will get 30 seconds for the 1st and 2nd call drops and 40 seconds for the 3rd to 7th call drops in compensation.
From the beginning of the next month, users of all mobile operators will be able to see the number of calls dropped each day, week and month by dialling USSD code *121*765.
The telecom regulator disclosed the new directives in a press conference on Monday.
Mentioning the new call drop guidelines as a milestone, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunication Mustafa Jabbar said that the customers receive the services with money. So, operators should make sure that they get that service properly.
According to the data from the regulator, telecom operator Grameenphone recorded 49.60% call drops while Robi's call drop rate was 41.45% and Banglalink recorded 8.95% call drops in May.
The minister further said, if operators invest more in infrastructure rather than compensating customers, their call drop rates will decrease while their customer base will go up.
Secretary of the Post and Telecommunication Department Md Khalilur Rahman commented that call-drops are not part of the consumer experience that is expected from operators.
“Operators should focus more on ensuring that people are not deprived of quality services,” Rahman further stated.
Both government officials called upon the operators to take steps regarding the improvement of voice calls as well as data speed.
The Vice-Chairman of the Commission Subrata Roy Maitra said that mobile operators are not interested in the quality of service as much as they are interested in business.
With the new guidelines, customers will get compensation against dropped calls and can access detailed information about it.
Taking every call drop to be Tk0.60 in value, the BTRC estimates that Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink have not provided Tk10.74 crore in compensation to customers in the first six months of this year.
Of the amount, Grameenphone owes Tk2.22 crore, Robi Tk6.16 crore and Banglalink Tk1.72 crore.
Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer of Robi Axiata Shahed Alam said: "Call drops are a very common phenomenon in wireless networks of MNOs. The new guidelines issued by the regulatory body in this regard will provide a temporary solution to the customers' problems. To solve this problem in the long run, we need to dig deeper and take action according to the nature of the problem."
Mohiuddin Ahmed, an engineer at BTRC pointed out that the telecom infrastructure is not growing at the rate at which customers are growing.
According to another engineer of the commission, there are many reasons for call drops including load shedding, interference in radio equipment and optical fibre, network boosters and jammers.
However, he also said that the rate of call drops will decrease if the barred bandwidth in favour of operators is fully implemented in 2022.
According to BTRC, several steps have been taken to ensure the quality of service including the spectrum auction and tower sharing guidelines in 2021 and 2022, along with effective initiatives undertaken to reduce the distance between mobile operators and NTTN operators.
