It is alleged that some corrupt senior officials and a section of class four employees of the T&T Board have formed a pact with the brokers who are very active around the telephone exchanges.

Jahangir Alam of New Elephant Road submitted his application for a fixed line phone on November 15, 2003. The application along with the demand note now lies with the Elephant Road camp under Nilkhet Telephone exchange. Sub assistant engineer of the camp Karim Khan claimed that they could not provide Alam with the connection due to a lack cable networking capacity.

But Alam might have been better served if he had taken a different approach.

The moment a prospective applicant steps inside the Gulistan Telephone Exchange, a number of people will surround him and inform him about the 'easier way' to get a telephone connection and that too within a short period.

"Three people were walking with me telling me that they could manage everything including the demand note," said Mozibul Haque.

Ignoring them, Haque went to the submission booth. To submit a prayer, subscribers need to pay Tk 100 in pay-order with the application form. The man inside the booth asked for Tk 120.

"He said that for the extra 20 Taka, he was going to arrange the pay-order for me and I would not have to go to the bank for it. He thought he was helping the applicants by taking the extra money," said Haque.

"After submitting the application form, I was asked to get in touch after three months. The man who received the form offered me another option if I wanted the phone line immediately. He said he could help me get the demand note issued sooner if I paid him Tk 2000," said Haque who was not interested in the proposal and prepared to wait. Seven months later he was asked to contact the Nilkhet Telephone Exchange as the demand note was sent there.

"Last November I went to the Nilkhet exchange and at the entrance two people came up to me and said that they can get the telephone connected to my home in two days," said Haque who again preferred to follow the legitimate process.

"The divisional engineer of that exchange told me to talk to the people at the Elephant Road camp after one month. Almost every day I either call the camp or go there but I have not received my connection yet," said Haque.

Divisional engineer of Nilkhet exchange Md Shajahan Ali Mollah admitted the existence of brokers. "A number of these brokers have more influence than actual employees," said Mollah.

He also said that the cable networking capacity of Nilkhet area has not been increased as per the demand. "The brokers take this opportunity as demand for fixed line phones is very high in this area."

Mollah informed that the capacity of the Nilkhet exchange was around 41,000 while it already had 40,000 subscribers. "This exchange is over-loaded if you compare it to other exchanges," said Mollah

At present the T&T Board is proving service to around 4.5 lakh subscribers in Dhaka city through nearly a hundred camps under 19 telephone exchanges.