Telecom regulator asks mobile operators
The telecom regulator has asked mobile operators to inform customers about the regular tariff of their SMS-based value added services when the promotional period of a particular service ends.
The regulator also directed the operators to let the customers choose whether they want to continue receiving the service at the regular tariff.
The VAS users often face “bill shocks” after unknowingly continuing the service beyond the promotion schedule, said Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) in a directive on Thursday.
The BTRC said the operators were also found not complying with a previous directive issued in August 2012 on SMS-based premium rate services on health care, agriculture.
The BTRC said the operators should follow the directives to ensure a healthy competition in the market and help customers avoid the bill shocks.
However, the operators said the new order surprised them as a consultation has been going on between them and the regulator on the 14-point directive issued in August.
However, so far both the parties have agreed on 11 points of the directive, said Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate officer of Grameenphone.
But the operators oppose the BTRC move to reduce the tariff for internet packages like “pay as you go” from Tk 0.02 per kilobyte to Tk 0.01, he said.
The regulator also asked the operators to introduce a system, which will enable users to close all value-added services, if they want, using a single keyword.
But Hossain said there are some technical problems to comply with the directive.
The operators also oppose the regulator’s call to use same keywords for a particular type of service of all operators, he said.
BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose said the commission is open to receive opinions from the operators.
The regulator may consider the directives which the operators will feel impossible to follow, he said.
The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh on Sunday requested the BTRC to hold further discussions, said TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of the association.
However, an official of another mobile operator said, once a customer gets registered for a service during the promotional period, he remains ‘on’ until he asks the operator to stop the service.
“It is a culture of global telecom service.”
A BTRC official said they received more than 3,500 complaints against various “push sells” of the operators.
Customers sometimes fail to understand offers properly and later complain of paying extra bills for VAS, he said.
Sometimes the operators even do not ask the users whether they want to continue the service, he said.
-With The Daily Star input
