BTRC places indefinite suspension on GP SIM card sale

The telecom regulator has placed an indefinite suspension on the SIM card sale of Grameenphone for the operator's failure to provide quality service.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) imposed an indefinite suspension on Grameenphone as it is not providing quality service to its users despite repeatedly being asked to do so, Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar told UNB Wednesday.

"The telecom company has no intention to provide quality service, as it is not doing anything to fix the problems that its subscribers are facing," he added.

"The BTRC placed the sale of Grameenphone SIM cards on indefinite suspension as we do not want new users to face the same problems," Jabbar further said.

The decision hit the operator hard as it has lost 16 lakh subscribers since the embargo was issued. As of August, Grameenphone has a subscriber base of 8.31 crore which was 8.48 crore in June.

In mid-September, the commission allowed the operator to sell 13-lakh old unused SIMs considering the high demand for Grameenphone SIM as per the applications of various government and private departments including law enforcement agencies.

However, BTRC backtracked from its decision on 6 November, after the Department of Posts and Telecommunications issued a show cause notice to the commission on 18 October regarding the directive.

"The service quality of the operator has not improved since the suspension of new SIM card sales. The ministry has instructed me to revoke my earlier order that allowed the sale of old SIMs," BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder said when asked about the withdrawal.

Later on 20 November, telecom giant Grameenphone got permission to sell 78,000 sim cards to selective public and private corporate clients such as the Bangladesh Armed Forces, Bangladesh Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

In a letter sent to BTRC on 25 November, Grameenphone asked for the lifting of the ban stating that it had fulfilled the conditions of service improvement.

Grameenphone, which put emphasis on network expansion along with its regular upgradation work at the end of last year, further sped up its work to ensure its quality of services since the telecom regulator imposed a ban on its SIM sale. 

The largest telecom network operator in the country increased the share of its mobile towers connected by fibre optic cables from 17% at the end of last year to 27% in November this year, according to sources at the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

The company aims to connect 34% of all of its mobile towers by optical fibre cable by the end of this year, said officials at Grameenphone.

Grameenphone's 4G internet download speed was the slowest – far below the standard of 7Mbps, according to the quality of service (QoS) drive tests conducted by the BTRC in the divisional cities across the country last year. When the telecom regulator launched similar tests in November this year, Grameenphone's download speed was around 17Mbps – the highest among all the telecom service providers in the country.

The mobile operator invested Tk1,230 crore to increase the number of its towers from 18,301 at the end of last year to 19,719 in September this year.

"Following the QoS drive tests last year, the regulatory body directed us to improve the areas where our network was comparatively poor. As per their directives and our network expansion plan, we have improved our services in all the areas by August to reach the required threshold," said Hossain Sadat, senior director (corporate affairs) of Grameenphone.

After taking vigorous measures to improve its services, the company submitted a written report to the telecom regulator on its work plan to get back the approval for SIM sale.

The company's pledges regarding network improvement include – connecting mobile towers by optical fibre cables, rolling out the spectrum procured in 2021 and increasing the number of mobile towers.

Besides, the company is in the final stage to sign agreements with Banglalink, Summit Communication and Edotco for tower sharing, said Hossain Sadat.

"Under these agreements, we will be able to use Banglalink towers where we do not have ours and Banglalink will be able to use ours where they do not have their infrastructure," said Hossain Sadat.

The telecom operator has also completed all negotiations with Robi to share each other's infrastructure for the sake of network improvement, he added.