The telecom regulator will seek opinions from stakeholders including general public, operators and civil society people soon to introduce the mobile number portability (MNP) system for customers.
Sources at Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said the 172nd meeting of the commission held recently decided to take necessary recommendations from the end-users as the regulator is interested to introduce it within a short time.
"We will advertise through BTRC's website and national dailies asking the cell phone users to come up with their suggestions/recommendations relating to the MNP system", a senior BTRC official said preferring anonymity.
He told the FE that immediately after getting the recommendations from the end-users, the regulator will also sit with the mobile phone operators and telecom experts to get their views and proposals to implement the initiative.
He claimed that the MNP system is beneficial for the customers as it gives them freedom to switch between mobile operators without changing their phone numbers for a certain minimal transfer fee.
Currently, some 72 countries including the neighbouring India and Pakistan have already adopted the popular system for their customers, whereas Singapore is the pioneer in the field. Â
The official said considering the benefits, by middle of the last calendar year, the regulator had urged the country's telecom operators to introduce the MNP system within next seven months that ended in January 2014.
However, the operators failed to make any progress within the deadline to implement the system. In addition, the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) replied to the BTRC that it would be a costly and complex process for the operators.
"Establishment of the infrastructure for the MNP system might take 7-8 months in a country like Bangladesh where nothing is ready," the official said adding that the operators presented an unrealistic roadmap of 5 years and estimated the cost to be US$ 150 million for its implementation.
However, the official underscored the need for properly addressing the commercial, technical and governance issues to make a viable solution to the issue.
The commercial issue is mainly related with SIM tax payment while technical matters with establishing network and governance with a common administration to run the service.
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