The government has planned to cut call tariff and installation charges and to offer free talk time and internet connection for telephone board subscribers to stay competitive with private landline operators.
Posts and telecommunications ministry officials said the ministry had proposed to introduce Tk 0.15 and Tk 0.10 for a local call within the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board network during peak and off-peak hours by reducing the existing rate at Tk 1.5 a unit (5 minutes in peak hours).
Officials said the telecoms ministry would soon send the proposals to the finance ministry for approval which would in effect reduce the call charge by a half. The sate-owned landline operator, which saw a negative subscriber growth in 2007, in February proposed that the telecoms ministry should introduce minute-based tariff at Tk 0.25 for peak hours and Tk 0.20 for off-peak hours for a local call, in place of the unit-based rate.
The board also proposed slashing per minute call tarrif to Tk 1 from Tk 1.5 for a call to mobile network. But after reviewing both the proposals, the ministry said the call rate should be cut further and suggested per minute call tarrif for calls to mobile network should be Tk 0.80 and Tk 0.70 during peak and off-peak hours. In addition to the introduction of minute-based call tarrif, the ministry also planned to cut the landline installation fee by 66 per cent to 75 per cent to Tk 2,000, Tk 1,000 and Tk 600 from the present Tk 6,000, 4,000 and Tk 2,500 in metropolitan areas, district towns and upzilas.
The ministry also proposed to offer free talk time worth Tk 50 equivalent call unit for metropolitan customers on each new connection and the Tk 100 equivalent on each new connection in districts and upzilas. The ministry also planned to offer free dial-up internet connection for its customers, abolishing the present Tk 300 one-time connection fee.
A senior telecoms ministry official said the move for reducing the prices of various BTTB services was taken to arrest the decline in the customer base of the landline operator which is expected to be turned into a public limited company by 2008. According to the statistics available with the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, the telephone board lost around 5,000 subscribers in 2007 to settle at 8.72 lakh from 8.77 lakh in 2006 although private landline subscribers soared by 122 per cent to 3.15 lakh in the period.
The telephone board was losing subscribers because of its inability to withstand the increased competition from private landline operators which were offering fixed phone connections with handset for prices with value added services lower than that of the telephone board offers, BTTB officials said.
In November, the telephone board cut call tariffs, line rent and transfer fees for the board’s landlines significantly to remain in the competition. It reduced the nationwide dialling by a half to Tk 1.5 a minute on 30-second pulses.
The monthly line rent was reduced to Tk 80 in Dhaka and Chittagong multi-exchange areas, Tk 70 in districts and Tk 50 in upazilas from Tk 150 in line rent.
