The country’s mobile phone operators are violating the 3G service regulation of the telecom regulator as they fail to provide the users with an option to crosscheck the bandwidth and data volume promised under the packages. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission while approving the 3G service and tariff of the four operators — Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel — made launch of service parameters tools mandatory on their respective web sites.
In the condition number 17 of the service approval of each operator it is mentioned that while calculating the 3G data speed the first overseas entry point will be considered. And, the mobile phone companies have to provide the necessary tools on their web site for the subscribers so that the subscribers can calculate the service parameters in real time, the condition said.
The tools would facilitate the users to compare the available speed and data in real times and the amount of speed and data promised under his/her packages, it mentioned.
The four operators won the 3G service licence in an open auction in September and went for commercial operation in October but no operator yet introduced such tools.
The BTRC conditions for the 3G service also said the operator must ensure 70 per cent delivery of the promised speed at all time under the 3G packages.
‘The operators must have the tools available for checking speed and volume when they launch the commercial service. If they don’t have it on their web sites, then it’s non-compliance,’ said a BTRC officer when asked about the issue.
The operators do not provide such tools to check the speed as they cannot deliver what they have promised, he said.
‘It is the right of the users to know what they are getting. If one can measure the actual quality of service, then you could see that most operators cannot provide even 50 per cent speed of what they promise,’ he said.
The BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose after the 3G auction had told the media that the operators could not be able to maintain the quality of service as they had bought less amount of spectrum.
In the auction Grameenphone took 10MHz with $210 million, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel took 5MHz each with $105 million an operator.
‘Most operators took 5MHz spectrum each which will not be sufficient for them to ensure proper service quality for 3G services,’ Sunil had told reporter immediately after the auction.
He had also said the BTRC would go tough about the service quality in the 3G operations of the operators.
The mobile phone companies are providing various data packages under the 3G service.
The GP and Robi are offering four speed tiers
starting from 512 kbps to end at 4 MBps, while Airtel is offering its packages in 1 MBps and 4 MBps and Banglalink is offering all its packages under 1MBps speed range.
When contacted by New Age other than Airtel all three mobile operators declined to comment on the matter.
Airtel admitted that its website do not provide any such facility at this moment.
‘The speed of Airtel internet, customers can either search for the speed test application at Play Store (Android), or App Store (Apple Products), or Market Place (Windows Phone), or App World (Blackberry) from handset or search for speed test web sites if using USB dongle or MiFi device on a computer or laptop. In addition, the links for these stores will soon be available on our website,’ said the operator.
-With New Age input
