The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has finalised a guideline to protect the consumer rights in telecom services and bar operators from running irrational and aggressive promotions. BTRC officials said that the guideline was finalised at a regular meeting of the commission on Monday presided over by BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose. They said the guideline would protect the privacy of mobile phone users, streamline tele-marketing services through SMS and ensure efficient complaint handling.
‘The guideline will bind operators to obey the penal code while running promotional campaigns. It will also bar partner-based promotional campaigns of the telecom operators,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age.
He said recently some campaigns of handset manufacturers and mobile phone operators raised question as those violated the telecom law.
‘Like we recently stopped a campaign of Robi where its subscribers were exclusively given chance to win motorcycle. We have received complaints that a local handset manufacturer offered air ticket as prize of lottery,’ he said.
He said the guideline will introduce tougher action for offering such high-value products.
BTRC officials said the guideline will make data usage information sharing with the users mandatory for the operators.
‘Currently, few operators willingly share the usage of data with the subscribers when they buy data pack. After the guideline is introduced, all operators will have to inform subscribers about their data usage on a periodic basis,’ another BTRC official told New Age.
The BTRC in January last year drafted the National Telecommunication Consumer Protection Guideline to empower the subscribers to reject promotional or commercial offer through SMS in a bid to streamline tele-marketing.
-With New Age input
