Mobile phone users have been facing bad voice services, like call drops, for quite some time. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) logged a number of complaints from subscribers of mobile operators, said an official of the commission.
As the mobile operators are providing services beyond their capacity, call drops are ocurring — both on-net and off-net, said the BTRC official.
If a base transceiver, for example, has the capacity to handle 100 users at a time, and the operator gives service to 200 people, the network will not take the extra load, he said.
A subscriber, Arshad Hossain who spends most of his time in Shankar of Dhanmondi and Karwan Bazar, said he has been suffering call drops for long. Sometimes, he faces call drops twice or thrice in a 10-minute talk, Hossain added.
Recently a low-subscriber private operator has requested the telecom ministry to reform the radio frequencies as the company is facing huge network problems.
Developing the network is the only solution to call-drops problem, and to ensure quality of service the operators can install micro BTS or mini BTS, said the BTRC official.
Sometimes the operators install dedicated network equipment for specific places like big offices to ensure smooth calls.
The BTRC official said most complaints are against state-owned mobile operator Teletalk, although it has the lowest customers. Complaints also come from the customers of other operators.
However, the call drops of largest operator Grameenphone are due to its technology upgrade work, which will be complete by the year-end, said Tanveer Mohammad, its chief technology officer.
Mehboob Chowdhury, chief executive officer of Citycell, said there are no complaints from the areas where the operator has coverage. Citycell uses CDMA (code division multiple access) technology that ensures better voice service, said Chowdhury.
Mohiuddin Babar, vice president of Robi, said the operator is swapping equipment in some places, which would take some time to complete. “That’s why some problems are occurring.”
Mashidur Rahman, general manager of Banglalink’s regulatory affairs, said the operator is changing some equipment that is disrupting services.
To ease the sufferings of the users to some extent, the regulator had earlier asked the operators not to impose ‘call setup’ charge which is tagged with every call. However, the move did not see light.
-With The Daily Star input
