Fall in import bill of mobile sets

The import cost of mobile phone sets and their spare parts has reduced in the first half of the current fiscal in comparison to the same period of the previous year.

The country imported mobile phone sets and their spare parts worth US$137.1 million during the July-December period of the current fiscal, according to the latest data on imports released by Bangladesh Bank.

The country spent $12.8 million during the same period to import spare parts of mobile handsets.

In the previous 2011-12 fiscal, Bangladesh imported mobile phone sets and their spare parts worth $170 million and $18.5 billion respectively.

Kabir Hossain, a wholesale mobile handset trader at the city’s Gulistan Mobile Market, told bdnews24.com: “The import of mobile handsets has reduced in recent times in monetary terms since low-cost mobile phones are being imported more. Eventually the number of imported mobile handsets isn’t on the downtrend.”

The telecom regulator, Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC), in a statement has already warned the concerned people against the massive import of fake and substandard handsets from China.

The regulatory body said that the businessmen often import fake and substandard handsets with false declaration.

Besides the brand handsets, there are many unbranded Chinese handsets in the market. The brand handsets like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Siemens and Motorola are directly marketed in Bangladesh.

The mobile phone operators have currently introduced internet access through the mobile handsets and the new generation of cellphone users are using such handsets to a great extent.

Considering the country’s mobile phone market, some local companies have started assembling mobile phone sets.

Market analysts said that it (mobile assembling) was also a reason behind the decline in mobile handset import costs.

According to the BTRC, the six mobile phone operators have issued some 97 million SIMs (subscriber identification module) till December last year.