BTTB mobile service
Dr. Rezaul Kareem, M.D. Associate Professor, Pediatrics Rangpur Medical College.
It is learnt that the Bangladesh Telephone & Telegraph Board (BTTB) is going to launch mobile phone service in February 2005. Our people have been looking forward to it for a long time to have relief from exploitation by various mobile phone companies. Regrettably, our expectations have been belied by BTTB as it has set a very high price for sim cards and relatively higher call rates than the neighbouring countries. I don't think BTTB would ever enjoy profit from its mobile phone service. I have the following proposals to make the BTTB mobile phone lucrative, popular and acceptable to the people in general. Sim cards should be provided with a nominal price of Tk 200 only. Call rate should be Tk 2 per minute. There should not be any pulse. Call charge should be deducted automatically on the basis of actual talk time and the last call duration and cost would be shown on the mobile screen after each call & SMS. There should not be any roaming nationally and the call rate would be the same across the country. A charge could be imposed for international roaming facilities. SMS charge should be Tk 1 for national and Tk 2 for international destinations. Necessary arrangements should be made as early as possible so that SMS could be sent and received from abroad. There should be same charge for calling local, NWD and ISD and in addition the actual talk time charge could be added for using mobile. There should be some off peak hours like the BTTB land line. All types of incoming calls should be free. An additional 30% charge could be added in case of calling from BTTB land phone to BTTB mobile phone. All mobile connections should be pre paid at the moment as BTTB would be free from the hazards of issuing and collecting bills, connecting and disconnecting lines etc. In course of time, post paid mobile can be made available if found feasible. There should be only Tk 300 pre paid cards available and the validity period of the card should be 30 days. The validity time of the next card(s) should automatically be added with the previous card(s). The total validity period would be the sum total of the validity time of the number of cards recharged multiplied by 30 days with effect from the day of installation. I have made these proposals considering the demand of subscribers and to make BTTB mobile phone convenient to the users. I also request the existing private mobile companies to take into account my proposals for providing better service at a cheaper rate.
| 
