Bangladesh telecom regulator moves to keep market competitive

Regulators in Bangladesh have moved to enforce new rules that will act as a deterrent to any attempt to reduce competition and encourage monopoly in the telecom market.

Restrictions can be clamped on an operator once it accounts for 40 percent of the subscribers, annual revenues or allocated spectrum, according to the Significant Market Power or SMP regulations.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission or BTRC recently approved the regulations.

Out of the four mobile phone operators in Bangladesh, only Grameenphone currently makes up more than 40 percent of the total market share in terms of subscriber base, according to the BTRC data.

"Everyone can do business once the SMP regulations are implemented. No-one will keep more than 40 percent of the total subscribers. The decision will be taken in the commission’s next meeting," BTRC Acting Chairman Jahurul Haque said.

He was speaking at a meeting with the members of Telecom Reporters’ Network, Bangladesh (TRNB) at the BTRC office in Dhaka on Wednesday.

After clearing the regulations in November last year, the BTRC has formed a committee to find out, if there is any, SMP in Bangladesh’s telecom sector, BTRC Legal and Licensing Division Director General AKM Shahiduzzaman later told bdnews24.com. 

The committee will make a report based on which operator will be brought under the regulations. The decision will be taken after the report is tabled in the commission meeting," he said.

“The SMP regulations aim to prevent the big operators from crossing the limit. It’s about market competition,” he added.

Mobile phone users of the four companies total 156.9 million now, according to the BTRC. Grameenphone is leading with over 72.7 million users or 45.8 percent of the market.

Robi accounts for 30 percent of the total users, Banglalink makes up 22 percent and government-run Teletalk has 2.5 percent subscribers.

Grameenphone is also ahead in terms of annual revenues. It earned 53 percent of the total market revenues in 2017, Robi 28 percent and Banglalink 18 percent.

The SMP regulations empower the BTRC to prevent oligopoly (a market in which control over the supply is in the hands of a small number of players and each one can influence prices and affect competitors), conspiratorial collusion to control the market by destroying the atmosphere of a healthy competition and merger of two or more firms.

The BTRC can order actions to prevent any operator from conducting certain activities that reduce or create possibilities of reducing market competition, according to the SMP rules.

The commission can, on its own volition or following a complaint, initiate investigations into alleged breach of the regulations. 

Neither Grameenphone nor any other operator agreed to comment on the regulations.

CURBS MEANT TO ENSURE QUALITY SERVICE

The commission has also moved to pressure the telecom operators to ensure quality service.

Lt Col Azizur Rahman Siddiqui, a BTRC director, said in the meeting with the TRNB that the commission will impose restrictions like cutting areas of service, capping number of subscribers, and putting minimum point of service standard to ensure quality service.

The BTRC will write to the operators about the possible restrictions, he said and added that the date for clamping the restrictions will be set after discussions with all relevant parties.  

He admitted the operators were facing a challenge that no-one was allowing them to set up towers fearing radiation in Dhaka, where most users live and most complaints are filed.

NO INTERNET PACKAGE LESS THAN 7 DAYS

BTRC Acting Chairman Jahurul said they are going to stop mobile phone internet packages that expire in less than seven days.

Such packages will be banned from Feb 1, according to him.

The users allege the operators were making extra profit by offering internet packages that expire shortly after activation before the subscribers can use the data they pay for.

Jahurul said the operators will also have to let users roll over their unused data to a new package bought by the users.

Of the 156.9 subscribers, 85.5 million use mobile phone internet, according to the BTRC.

The users, however, complain about service quality such as speed less than promised and disruptions in connection.

The BTRC has realised that insufficient spectrum bought by the operators is causing the connection and speed problems, Jahurul said.

The commission now wants to sit with the operators to resolve the issue.

Recently, Grameenphone proposed discussion with the BTRC to buy more spectrum.

TRNB President Jahidul Islam and General Secretary Samir Kumar Dey, among others, spoke at the meeting.