DHAKA, April 24, 2020 (BSS) – Country’s three mobile phone operators —
Robi, Banglalink and Teletalk– have confessed their inability to offer
quality of services (QoS) without additional spectrum allocation on emergency
basis in this COVID-19 gripped situation.
They said the government should consider the issues with utmost priority as
people are staying at home being compelled to adopt “digital life style”
which made the operators’ network capability overburden.
“It is worth noting that due to the lock-down situation, data traffic has
increased by more than 25 percent on our network,” Robi Chief Corporate and
Regulatory Officer Shahed Alam told BSS today.
“In this situation, it is not possible for us to meet the quality
expectations from our customers unless we are provided additional spectrum,”
he said, adding, “That’s why we have requested the government to consider
allocating us some additional spectrum for three-month period without any
charge in greater public interest.”
However, market leader Grameenphone virtually appeared against the move of
the three operators, saying it does not want free of cost rather interested
to buy additional spectrum at discount price, alleged the three.
A senior official of the three operators wishing anonymity said
Grameenphone is now demonstrating its financial muscle, alleging that “They
have always tried to make the spectrum price costlier so that none can afford
it.”
The three placed a proposal to the government last week, seeking 5
Megahertz spectrum each from the 2100 band — where 20 MHz of spectrum has
been sitting idle for years — for free for three months.
“At the end of the three months period, the government can take back the
additional spectrum,” said Shahed Alam.
Robi said it has long been requesting the government to reduce the price of
the spectrum to make it viable for it to purchase the amount of spectrum it
needs to satisfy its customers’ quality expectations.
Subsequently, it had applied for additional spectrum at a discount price to
the government and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission last
year, which is still awaiting regulatory approval.
“Once we get the additional spectrum, within seven days we can
significantly improve the quality of service experienced by our customers,”
said Shahed, adding, “We hope the government will positively consider our
request given the crisis situation.”