GP given new ‘013’ number series

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has approved a new number series ‘013’ for the country’s leading mobile phone operator Grameenphone (GP) in addition to the existing ‘017’ series. The regulatory body (BTRC) came up with the decision at its regular commission meeting held at its office in the city yesterday following the company’s application that claimed its existing 017 series was coming to an end. Founded in 1997, GP has 5.69 crore active subscribers of the total 11.40 crore in the country as of June 30. Following the decision, GP would be able to sell 10 crore more connections under the new number series. As per the BTRC rule, an operator can resell any connection after it remains inactive for 18 months. BTRC officials said that GP would soon be given permission to launch the new series of 013. The operator had earlier applied for an additional prefix at the beginning of 2015 as the existing capacity of useable would be ended in November this year. After Grameenphone’s application, the regulator didn’t agree to approve another number series. Rather, the commission had reduced the time frame of any particular SIM resell time from 24 months to 15 months. The decision, however, helped the operator to resell few more lakh SIMs. As the operator’s useable SIMs limitation would be ended in November, Grameenphone conveyed its concern to the regulator. Earlier, Grameenphone applied for two times to increase its digit 9 to 10. Later, all the operators were given 11 digit numbers. The national numbering plan has ten prefixes for mobile operators of which 010, 012 and 014 are still free. At present, Teletalk is using 015 series, Airtel 016, Robi 018, Banglalink 019 while Citycell 011 series. If the Citycell’s license is finally cancelled, its 011 series number will also become free as the regulator already has given a timeframe to switch over its subscribers RIM by 23 August. “We are still awaiting the official approval letter from BTRC on the new prefix. We have applied for a new number series as the possible numbers under our 017 prefix have almost been exhausted,’’ said Grameenphone Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Mahmud Hossain while talking to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.