The country's cellphone operators will push the government for forming a joint taskforce immediately to revise the current telecom policy what they call 'outdated'.
Officials have said the existing policy is the major hindrance to attracting large-scale foreign investments in the fast-growing sector, depriving the government of its expected revenue earnings and the citizen from the improved telephony services.
"The policy is obviously outdated. We've unanimously decided to propose the (telecommunications) ministry and the BTRC to take collaborative action to update it," said TIM Nurul Kabir, Secretary General of the Association of Mobile Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB).
He told the FE that the association has taken the decision at a recent programme attended by representatives from all of the major telecom service providers including Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, and state-run Teletalk.
Through the proposal, the telecom service providers will suggest the authorities forming the taskforce ensuring representation of major stakeholders including those from the government and telecom operators.
"Initially, the taskforce will review the existing telecommunication act 2001 which was amended in 2010 to find out the loopholes," Mr Kabir said adding that the team members also will consider global shift in telecom technologies.
He said the mobile operators and international organisations support an effective public-private dialogue through formation of a committee to review the current legislative, policy, and regulatory framework governing the the mobile phone operators.
The AMTOB secretary general said that cellular-phone is no longer a device to perform personal communications; rather it has been offering multiple services such as Mobile-banking, Mobile-commerce, Mobile-health, Mobile-agriculture, Mobile-education and data services.
Attending the programme, Vivek Sood, CEO of the Grameenphone, said the existing policy was formulated in 1998 mainly taking voice telephony services into account.
He called upon the government to rethink its higher taxation policy over the telecom sector as it directly affects the mobile-phone use, hampering the normal growth of the industry as well.
"To connect over 40 million unconnected inhabitants, majority of the underprivileged people, the government should reduce the existing tariff of 15 per cent on cellular-phone use," he said adding that the then authorities formulated the policy to get 4.0 per cent population connected, whereas now the percentage reached over 40 per cent.
Upon a request from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) developed National Telecommunication Policy (NTP) for Bangladesh in 2012, but the policy has been remaining on paper for over the years.
According to industry insiders, currently investment size in the country's telecom sector is Tk 500 billion, of which almost 60 per cent are foreign outlay.
The country's telecom operators have been pressing the government to revise the existing policy to help accelerate the industry's growth incorporating the modern services and facilities. Even the government repeatedly assured the operators of revising the policy as soon as possible.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose had earlier said potential investors have been discouraged by outworn operating guidelines.
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