The country's private land phone companies fear financial losses and job cut due to a massive 40 per cent tariff reduction by their public sector rival and other reasons.
PSTN (Public switched telephone network) operators said they have invested Tk27.0 billion.
"Our business has been hit as there is no level playing ground in the sector," said General secretary of the Association of Bangladesh PSTN Operators Major (retd) Mohammad Jahangir.
"Private land phone operators' investment worth Tk27 billion is at stake due to unhealthy competition," he told the FE.
Mr. Jahangir said the PSTN operators will be forced to cut 50 per cent job as they are experiencing operating losses for various reasons including the tariff cut by the public company.
He said due to economic slowdown the number of subscribers is falling.
State-owned Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL), formerly BTTB, recently reduced its landline tariff to Tk 0.10 and Tk 0.15 for BTCL to BTCL calls within the same district, Tk 1.0 and Tk 0.70 for BTCL to BTCL calls to other districts, Tk 1.0 and Tk 0.70 for BTCL to mobile operators, Tk 0.80 and Tk 0.70 for BTCL to other PSTN in the peak and off-peak hours respectively. It has also introduced one-minute pulse.
Mr. Jahangir, also managing director of National Telecom Ltd, said: "How can the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) allow the state-owed company to reduce tariff in violation of a regulation that bars charging a rate not below 0.25 paisa a minute?"
Md. Rezaul Quader, a director of BTRC, said there is no such rule of the telecom regulatory body.
He further said a private land phone operator charges 0.25 paisa a minute for a call anywhere in the country while the state-owned company charges Tk 0.70-Tk 1.0 and for BTCL to BTCL calls to other districts.
Asif Rabbani, managing director of Onetel Communication Ltd, told the FE: "My company's investment is at a stake as we face a massive squeeze in business."
He said: "I have already downsized the number of employees by 40 per cent to reduce cost of operation."
According to the BTRC statistics, the total number of land phone subscribers has reached over 1.27 million at the end of May 2008.
Of total number of subscribers, BTCL has over 0.87 million while four Dhaka based PSTN operators --Ranks Telecom Ltd, National Telecom Ltd, Peoples Telecom Ltd and Dhaka Telephone Co. Ltd-- have over 0.14 million, 33,760, 39,158 and 49,647 of customers respectively.
Apart from this, Telebarta Ltd has 56,424, Jalalabad Telecom Ltd 3,948, Onetel Communication Ltd 37,796, National Telecom Ltd 33,760, Peoples Telecom Ltd 39,158, Westec Ltd 17,000, Dhaka Telephone Co. Ltd 49,647, Sheba Phone Ltd. (ISL) 7,224 and S. A. Telecom System Ltd. 12,508 subscribers running operation outside the capital.
ATM Hayatuzzaman, chairman of Dhaka Telephone Company Ltd, said the government should reduce one time connection fee that it takes from the private operators from existing Tk800 considering the growth of this sector.
Pvt land phone cos fear financial losses due to massive tariff cut by BTCL
Naim-Ul-Karim | Published: July 19, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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