Fate of PSTN operators hanging in balance
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Jubair Hasan
The fate of five PSTN operators are hanging in balance for the last eight months after the telecom regulator stopped operation of the land phone companies for their alleged links to illegal running of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) had disconnected more than half a million of phone lines of RangsTel, Dhaka Phone, People'sTel, WorldTel and National Phone in March this year.
The BTRC then issued show cause notice to the companies.
The five companies who accounted for over a third of the country's 1.5 million land phone subscribers went to the High Court against the move of BTRC as it did not serve any prior notice before the disconnection.
Following the prayer, the High Court gave ruling for disposing of the matter within seven working days, mentioning that the telecom regulator for the greater interest of subscribers could deploy administrators in those companies if it decided to cancel their licences.
"The court mentioned it so that none of their subscribers faced troubles," ATM Shamsuddin, chief operating officer of RangsTel, said and added, against this instruction the BTRC appealed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court where the matter is pending.
Authorities of the disconnected telecom operators also had a meeting with the parliamentary standing committee on post and telecommunications two months back and after the meeting it had asked the BTRC to submit a report to them on the problem.
"Following the order, the BTRC had discussed the matter with us for making the report. But since then we did not get any updates of it," Mr Shamsuddin said adding their billion-dollar investment has now been lying idle and their equipment are getting damaged for the indecision.
He said his company received around 2.50 million traffic daily and earned more then 50 million taka as revenue per month when it was in operation. As per the statistics, RangsTel alone suffered a loss of minimum 400 million taka due to the decision, he added.
When contacted, Hasanul Haq Inu, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on post and telecommunications, said the matter was shifted to the ministry concerned for reaching a better solution.
Meanwhile, thousands of mobile phone recharge businessmen threatened to launch a tough movement if the authorities failed to pay compensation for the loss they suffered due to the sudden shutdown.
Md. Aminul Islam Bulu, president of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Recharge Business Association (BMPRBA), said their 0.4 million businessmen faced a loss of nearly Tk 2.0 billion as a huge quantity of cards, recharge amount and phone sets remained unused for the BTRC's action.
The fate of five PSTN operators are hanging in balance for the last eight months after the telecom regulator stopped operation of the land phone companies for their alleged links to illegal running of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) had disconnected more than half a million of phone lines of RangsTel, Dhaka Phone, People'sTel, WorldTel and National Phone in March this year.
The BTRC then issued show cause notice to the companies.
The five companies who accounted for over a third of the country's 1.5 million land phone subscribers went to the High Court against the move of BTRC as it did not serve any prior notice before the disconnection.
Following the prayer, the High Court gave ruling for disposing of the matter within seven working days, mentioning that the telecom regulator for the greater interest of subscribers could deploy administrators in those companies if it decided to cancel their licences.
"The court mentioned it so that none of their subscribers faced troubles," ATM Shamsuddin, chief operating officer of RangsTel, said and added, against this instruction the BTRC appealed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court where the matter is pending.
Authorities of the disconnected telecom operators also had a meeting with the parliamentary standing committee on post and telecommunications two months back and after the meeting it had asked the BTRC to submit a report to them on the problem.
"Following the order, the BTRC had discussed the matter with us for making the report. But since then we did not get any updates of it," Mr Shamsuddin said adding their billion-dollar investment has now been lying idle and their equipment are getting damaged for the indecision.
He said his company received around 2.50 million traffic daily and earned more then 50 million taka as revenue per month when it was in operation. As per the statistics, RangsTel alone suffered a loss of minimum 400 million taka due to the decision, he added.
When contacted, Hasanul Haq Inu, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on post and telecommunications, said the matter was shifted to the ministry concerned for reaching a better solution.
Meanwhile, thousands of mobile phone recharge businessmen threatened to launch a tough movement if the authorities failed to pay compensation for the loss they suffered due to the sudden shutdown.
Md. Aminul Islam Bulu, president of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Recharge Business Association (BMPRBA), said their 0.4 million businessmen faced a loss of nearly Tk 2.0 billion as a huge quantity of cards, recharge amount and phone sets remained unused for the BTRC's action.