Stunned to see the news against BTRC’s Chairman in BDNEWS24.com on 23rd January, 2009. I think reporters should think twice or thrice before they write about someone and his activities. There were several allegations against BTRC and their work relating IIG, IGW and WiMAX.
I should say a short history about the past and present BTRC. As a businessman of telecom industry and owner of a call center, I was related to BTRC for a long time not for the call centre but for other issues also. When BTRC was in Gulshan, I had to pay about 500.00 Tk. only to send my card to any director’s room. That BTRC is now open to everybody, even for the access to the Chairman. When I went to setu bhaban for a query about the Call Center Licensing, the staffs of BTRC just really teach me everything and gave more than 20 mins time, which was un-imaginable to me. They have shown their professionalism. I have got all the information and the risk factors which I didn’t get from a seminar of an Indian Company. Their style and cooperation was like a corporate service organization. This only can happen for this new regime of BTRC, where General Manzur leads it from the front.
As a businessman I was observing BTRC’s present activity and their new approaches to the telecom industry. One of the appreciable matters was ILDTS Policy 2007. Before the formulation of the policy all the long distance telephone calls were ruled by the state owned company BTCL. To reduce the illegal VoIP and increase the government revenue BTRC needs to do something. The Policy made it happened. Introduction of IGW in the private sector the grey market is reducing day by day. At present as a survey report each IGWs are getting more than 3-4 million minutes per day. For this government is earning a huge amount of revenue.
ICX made accountability to all the Domestic Operator and made interconnection easier to everybody. So the PSTN and the Cell Phone operator can’t hide their calls and can also be easily monitored. It was totally against operators. Still they don’t want to pass all the calls through ICX. If ICX can work properly, the ANS operators have to share the revenue with the government for each call.
Now comes to Mango and IIG. Before Mango, to get a high speed internet connection from BTCL was very tough every time. Their service was very poor and getting a connection from their premises was very hard for their bureaucratic thinking and attitude. The ISPs and the ISPAB always claimed about their service. BTRC took their request and include IIG in ILDTS framework, so that everybody can get an easy service. But I think BTRC mistakes about fixing the percentage of bandwidth portion. It should be variable condition, not fixed portion like 45-45-10. Now Mango is online with high bandwidth and serving the country very well. In the recent past when the SME-4 was down, only Mango runs the whole country by their west side cable with Singtel. Its an achievement for them as well as connecting the nation with the rest of the world. But the ISP owners now started to broadcast some wrong information against Mango.
In the WiMAX bid, Mr. Salam (CEO, Agni Online) who is raising the main allegation against Mango, was doing bid with V-TEL. As a state owned company BTRC reserved one license for BTCL. But for their transition and fund crisis they are not ready to invest in this sector. From the winning 3 companies, only Augere and Banglalion took the license. When BRAC denies to take the license, BTRC asked all the bidders step by step by dint of their auction position. The bidder no 4,5&6 that is V-Tel. Then BTRC came down to bidder no 7, that is Mango. At this position Mango requested BTRC to give them some more time to arrange the money, which is a huge amount. Of the 9participants, when nearly everybody is rejecting the offer and at the end position when Mango wanted some time extension, BTRC give them the time extension to reduce the monopoly of the market, nothing else.
Mr. Salam also raised voice against Mango’s participation in WiMAX bid. As a data service operator Mango can participate in any kind of auction. Also in the auction BTCL ( also an IIG ) was given a WiMAX license as a Government Owned Company. So from that side, Mango can also take part in the WiMAX bid. More over it was within the WiMax guideline.
I’m very much delightful about BTRC’s work and future plan regarding 3G, LTE, Mobile Number Portability, IMEI Barring and Second Submarine Cable. I think it is only for BTRC we are talking with the lowest call charge of the world. Only for BTRC we are getting a low price high bandwidth internet connection to every home. As a citizen of the country I feel proud of their work and achievements and also to entering BTRC office and get a world class service. I want to see BTRC as a super-regulator in the sub continent.