BTRC to go tough on mobile phone operators

Bill Shocks After Promotional Offers
BTRC to go tough on mobile phone operators
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is likely to go tough on the mobile phone operators as many subscribers are facing bill shocks after availing themselves of different promotional or campaign offers.
BTRC officials said the commission would issue a directive to the mobile phone companies

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Unregistered SIMS banned from Friday

Mobile operators will not be able to sell pre-activated connections from Friday as the telecom regulator introduced a raft of measures to tighten the registration process to fight crimes committed using cellphones.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said mobile operators would have to stop purchase and sales of all kinds of pre-activated SIM (subscriber identity module) and

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Draft BTRC orders eye slashed P1 internet rate

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has drafted a host of orders for mobile operators to give better services to subscribers including reduced rate for ‘pay as you go’ or P1 internet package.
The commission on Thursday posted the draft on its web site and sought public opinion by October 10.
As per the draft orders, the BTRC has suggested the mobile operators to cut down

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GP, Banglalink fail to meet BTRC deadline

10-Second Pulse
GP, Banglalink fail to meet BTRC deadline
Two leading mobile phone operators failed to implement the directive of telecom regulators to introduce 10-second pulse on each mobile call within the latest deadline that ended on Saturday.
Four other companies also failed to introduce flat call rate or same rate for every minute of a call within the same deadline set by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission

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Three mobile cos deposit Tk 2,372cr in fees, VAT

Licence renewal fee installment 
Three mobile cos deposit Tk 2,372cr in fees, VAT
Mobile companies Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink on Thursday gave a total sum of Tk 2,372 crore to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission as the second instalment of licence renewal fee, spectrum charge and VAT.
However Citycell submitted an application to the BTRC on the day, seeking extension of the

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3G, VAS guidelines not friendly for business: Orascom CEO

The visiting Orascom Telecom chief executive officer Ahmed Abou Doma on Saturday said that the draft 3G licensing and value added-service guidelines ‘will put many foreign investments off the country.’
Abou Doma, addressing a press conference at the Westin hotel in the capital, also asked the regulator and the government to reach a consensus with telecoms operators before putting into the

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Banglalink’s revenue up 19pc

Banglalink’s revenue rose 19 percent to Tk 1,070 crore in the first quarter, compared to the same period a year ago. An aggressive subscriber acquisition strategy for the quarter, in addition to a higher level of value-added service and data adoption led to the revenue increase for Q1, the country’s second largest mobile phone operator said in a report

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BTRC to retrieve Tk 2250cr bandwidth from cell operators

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will be able to retrieve a total of 15 MHz of bandwidth worth Tk 2250 crore from different mobile operators after it completes the systematic re-arrangement of the bandwidth distribution in 1800 MHz band, sources at BTRC have said.
1800 MHz band is the portion of the radio frequency spectrum used by the country’s

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Telcos seek more time to pay licence renewal fees

Four mobile operators will not pay outstanding fees for their licence renewal before they receive the certified copies of the High Court’s verdict on the Grameenphone versus BTRC case.
Officials of Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell yesterday met Zia Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, and expressed

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Telcos puzzled by regulator’s new letter

Licence Renewal Fees
Telcos puzzled by regulator’s new letter
Four mobile telephone operators are confused over a letter from Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission that asked them to pay a due amount and late fees for licence renewal.
The BTRC on Wednesday asked Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Citycell to deposit a combined amount of Tk 857.46 crore within 10 days to renew their

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Mobile operators’ infrastructure sharing at stake

A regulatory move is holding back mobile operators’ infrastructure sharing business with other service providers. According to a decision of the regulator, the mobile companies will now have to share their network through a common network.
Also, the mobile operators will not be allowed to do such business in the areas where

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Mobile operators evading SIM tax

The officials from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) have alleged that the mobile phone operators in Bangladesh evade SIM tax, by hiding the number of their actual subscriber base. The NBR officials said that some investigations of the board had revealed that lots of mobile numbers, from different operators, were found “active”, while as per their submitted database, those numbers were supposedly

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GP clears stand on regulator’s claim for Tk 3,034cr

Grameenphone yesterday refuted the claim of the regulator that the mobile operator will have to pay Tk 3,034 crore in unpaid revenue and tax.
Kazi Monirul Kabir, chief communications officer of the company, said they “strongly disagree” with the numbers the regulator has claimed in a letter sent to GP on

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