The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has decided to allow international calling card service in the country so that people can talk to their families abroad.
BTRC officials said the commission last week approved the international calling card service but decided to limit the licences within three companies.‘The commission will give permission at best to three companies to run the international calling card business,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age on Sunday.
He said the BTRC would form a committee to formulae the service conditions for the international calling card business.
‘There are issues like inter-operators connectivity and revenue sharing models. But no gateway operators or mobile phone company will be allowed for the business,’ the official said.
He said the calling card operators would have to deposit a performance bank guarantee equal to the amount they intended to receive as yearly revenue.
‘The calling card will be available on talk-time basis,’ the official said.
He said the users would have to use the calling card through toll-free numbers provided by the operators.
The BTRC has taken the initiative because of higher charges by the mobile phone operators, the officials said.
Another BTRC official, however, said that people were becoming more familiar with technology and would use application like Viber or Skype for calling people abroad for free.
‘The business case for calling card might go dry in the long run following the rapid growth of internet users. People can now talk for free using Viber or Skype. In coming days the rural people will also be able to use such apps,’ he said.
According to BTRC data, the total outgoing call through the International Gateway operators was 24,691-crore minutes last year and it was 478-crore minutes through Interconnection Exchange operators.
-With New Age input
