The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has recently issued a directive for introducing local and international commercial toll-free services aiming at call centres, private companies and banks. A toll-free number is an option where the number holder pays for the calls it receives. Callers need not to pay for their calls to a toll-free number.The BTRC in September finalised the draft of commercial toll-free service and sought public opinion on the issue.
According to the BTRC directive issues last week, the entities that can get local and international toll-free services include, but not limited to, inbound and outbound call centres, multinational companies for their brands, calling card companies, international original equipment manufacturers, financial institutions like banks, insurance companies, money exchanges and global supply chain companies, and telecom companies.
Any of the entities can get a local toll-free number from the BTRC at Tk 5,000 and an international one at Tk 15,000.
The BTRC in the draft directive had proposed the fees at Tk 25,000 for local toll-free numbers and Tk 50,000 for international ones.
According to the directive, the international toll-free (ITF) number will start with ‘0888’ prefix followed by seven digits and the local toll-free number will start with ‘0800’ prefix followed by seven digits.
International gateway operators will provide the clients with international toll-free numbers, subject to approval of the BTRC. Tariff rate for the ITF call will be minimum $0.050 per minute.
The tariff will be charged on the toll-free number holders (called party) or third party by the service providing IGW, said the draft directive.
The directive said that allocation fee for an ITF premium number would be Tk 30,000 and yearly renewal fee would be Tk 5,000 without VAT.
The tariff rate for the
calls for the entities taking local toll-free services (LTFS) will be Tk 0.60 per minute, irrespective of the fact that the operator sending the calls is the same operator having LTFS platform or not.
LTFS is accessible from all telephone operators in the country.
For a local premium toll-free number allocation fee will be Tk 10,000 and yearly renewal fee will be Tk 2,500 without VAT, it proposed.
LTF platform will be provided by PSTN or PLMN operators but the access lines for dial-up termination for the LTF number must be made as per respective licensing conditions, said the draft directive.
The allocation of a toll-free number will be for one year and it will not be transferable.
Toll-free numbers can be surrendered to the BTRC, but in such cases no payment will be refunded.
The local toll-free number will be provided based on availability — first-come, first-served basis.
-With New Age input
