Int’l Call Termination
BTRC order creates confusion on procedural ground
A telecom regulator’s order to slash the revenue sharing for international call termination has created confusion among the stakeholders as the regulator changed licensing provision without making necessary amendments. Following a ministry order the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission last week halved the international call termination charges and slashed the operators’ revenue sharing with the government for six months in a bid to aid some politically-licensed gateway operators.
The BTRC order said the government revenue sharing in the charge was lowered to 40 per cent from 51.75 per cent while the revenue sharing of the IGW operators was raised to 20 per cent from 13.25 per cent.
The BTRC also increased the revenue sharing of the interconnection exchange operators to 17.50 per cent from 15 per cent and that of access network service operators to 22.5 per cent from 20 per cent.
Some officials of the BTRC and mobile phone operators said there was confusion about that BTRC notice as the regulator needed to make amendments to the licensing guideline to change a licensing clause like revenue sharing.
The telco officials said that they were confused whether or not a letter would supersede the licensing condition with the amendment.
The BTRC officials also said that such change did not comply with the
Telecommunication Act 2010.
‘The ministry can ask the BTRC for such a change in a letter but when the telecom regulator issues that order to operators, it needs to follow the procedure,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age on Sunday.
He said according to the Telecommunication Act 2010, the BTRC have to give 15-day time to operators concerned to express their views before making any change to the licensing condition.
‘As the call termination rate was changed following demand of the IGW operators, there is no need for 15-day time. But as far as the revenue sharing concern, there are several operators involved and the regulator needs to amend the licensing condition in due procedure,’ the official said.
A senior official of a mobile phone company told New Age that the order created further confusion as it did not mention any date of effect.
‘We are not sure when the new rates and revenue sharing will come into effect,’ he said.
The official also said that the order only mentioned the lowest call termination rate, ‘But there suppose to be a higher ceiling which the BTRC order did not mention,’ he said.
Asked about the issue posts and telecommunications minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui said that new rates and revenue sharing would come into effect from July.
‘The new rates and revenue sharing will come into effect from July,’ he told New Age on Monday.
‘If the BTRC made any procedural flaws, then it is not my concern. The ministry did not make any mistake in its order,’ he said.
-With New Age input
