All the cell phone operators in the country have to introduce ‘10 second pulse’ with each call from today, as the regulator has put special attention for ensuring customers’ benefit, said officials.
‘The operators have to introduce the ‘10 second pulse’ after 12 midnight Tuesday. If they do not do so, it will be a violation of country’s telecom law and they have to face punishment,’ the chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, Zia Ahmed, a retired Major General, told the news agency Tuesday.
He said the commission is taking decision considering the interest of customer as the situation in telecom industry had been changed.
‘Call drops are frequent, and when it happen, users have to pay for whole minutes even when they talk for a few seconds..We can’t accept it,’ Ahmed said.
Officials said the regulator Tuesday sent another reminder letter to the operators to implement the directive. The letter contains legal and other aspects. Earlier, on August 2, the regulator sent first notice to six operators, where it asked the operators to carry out the order from August 15.
The notice said the cell phone users suffer financially when they had to pay for the full minute or pulse even when the call is dropped or network disrupted. Some users are used to short conversations, so paying for additional time is unrealistic, it added.
The cell phone operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel, Citycell and Teletalk have to implement the decision for all packages irrespectively with Interactive Voice Response for ensuring quality service.
Earlier In May 2011, the BTRC directed the mobile operators to fix the time pulse, but none has yet complied with the advice.
Instead of fixing 10-second pulse for each call, the operators in the country are in competition of offering luring packages to grab subscribers for using the unused subscriber identity module.
Currently, the minimum rate for an on-net (to same operator) call is Tk 0.25 per minute and the minimum rate for an off-net (to a different operator) call is Tk 0.65 per minute.
Most cell phone operators have reduced their on-net tariff to a minimum level but still the off-net tariff is high, above Tk 1.
-With BSS/New Age input
