State Minister Tarana Halim questions BTRC over customer services

The telecom regulator does not move fast enough to improve mobile customer services, according to State Minister Tarana Halim.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission or BTRC, however, shifted the blame to mobile phone operators.

The state minister for telecom faulted the BTRC on its slow progress in moving files over customer services, according to minutes of a January meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.

The minister told the meeting that the BTRC is prompt in forwarding files for licences to the ministry, but that's not the case for matters tied to mobile subscribers, documents obtained by bdnews24.com show.

Tarana Halim said on Wednesday the government's prime focus is on improving customer services.

"But it's moving slower than the other issues," she told bdnews24.com. “Everything, except for the quality of service, moves at the usual pace.”

Among several other telecom issues, the BTRC is also responsible for ensuring the quality of services provided by mobile phone operators.

Frequent call drops, slow internet and unwanted SMSs from operators top the list of complaints by subscribers in Bangladesh.

In a BTRC-organised public hearing last year, subscribers said call drops were rampant while some internet and voice data packages were rip-offs.

The telecom regulator, however, says operators are reluctant to comply with their instructions.

Responding to the state minister during the parliamentary panel meeting, BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood said, "The operators are informed immediately of any instruction by the ministry. But they are often reluctant to enforce those."

The parliamentary committee’s Chairman Imran Ahmed asked whether the BTRC advises the ministry to take steps against operators in such cases.

He also wanted to know whether the BTRC was an independent body.

Responding to that, Tarana Halim said: "The BTRC is not a constitutional body, it's under the government. But the ministry does not interfere in its affairs."

Mahmood said the BTRC, as an organisation, is not effective. "It's necessary to define its objective and scope of responsibility in a clear and specific way."

Mahmood, however, declined to comment on the meeting when bdnews24.com reached him on Wednesday.