MFS firms, not customers, will pay mobile phone operators for balance check: BTRC

Customers will not have to pay charges to check the balance with their Mobile Financial Service or MFS provider, according to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission or BTRC.

The telecom regulator came up with the clarification in a media release on Tuesday after confusion was created following a June 13 notice asking the MFS companies to pay the mobile phone operators for such services like checking balance.

The telecom operators have been demanding the payment for a long time as their platforms are being used to show the MFS customers their balance through Unstructured Supplementary Service Data or USSD.        

On June 13, the BTRC said the MFS companies will pay the mobile phone operators Tk 0.85 per 90-second session or two SMS through USSD.

The charge for other services like checking balance was set at Tk 0.40 per use.

But confusion was created over whether the MFS providers would charge the customers for checking balance.

On Tuesday, the BTRC clarified that the MFS firms cannot charge the customers to pay the mobile phone operators for such services.