Shahidul K K Shuvra: This is the first time after the pledge of Digital Bangladesh the country is heading towards to celebrate World Information Society Day on 17 May with arranging many colourful ICT events. The global IT programme also had been know as World Telecommunication Day. A resolution adopted in 2005 World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis by the United Nations General Assembly which set a mission to invite every country to be based on the knowledge.
The next World Telecommunication Day keeps a special note for the country because the new government has given a timeframe to revolutionise the country's development before 2021, and BTRC got the new boss to fuel up the telecommunication sector. Chittagon district has been selected as a centre of the celebration for this year and new features will be added in the telecommunication exposition.
An authoritarian power had been given to BTRC, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, during the last military backed government. The telecommunication watchdog came in the limelight by its cracking down on VoIP businesses which was illegal and deprived the country from taxes. In addition, BTRC boldly fined mobile phone operators for being involved with the VoIP trade. The then chairman of BTRC made the telecommunication watchdog more powerful and also he created controversy for his extremism in some places.
New chairman of BTRC Zia Ahmed is holding the office and last week he invited journalists to exchange views. First he declared his plan to celebrate the World Telecommunication Day on 17 to 18 May where students will get focused and for them there will be many online contests, awards, classes by video conference etc. 21 stalls will demonstrate the telecommunication technologies and their benefits to educate commoners on ICTs.
Chittagong Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh, has been selected as a venue for the two-days long event which will let cellphone operators, call centres, PSTN (public switch telephone network) operators, telemedicine, community radio etc to demonstrate their products and services.
Chairman of BTRC Zia Ahmed stressed ensuring the service for people as his first priority and then he will increase revenue size 22 core to 25 core. He thinks providing benefits of the technology with cheap price will not hamper the revenue earning from the telecommunication sector. Rather the availability of affordable services can boost up revenue earning.
BTRC is in favour of reducing taxes on IT gadgets and before the budget such campaign can play a role to make the technology more affordable. The beginning of Vision 2021 deserves tax wave on the digital products.
The International Long Distance Telecommunication Services (ILDTS) policy is under the review to send it to the next parliamentary session. BTRC found out some problems in the policy, which will be amended.
Zia Ahemd also ensured to continue the initiatives taken by the then BTRC chairman during the military backed government. He vowed to intensify the operation against illegal VoIP businesses. He thinks bringing technology in the grips of commoners with affordable service charges can discourage people towards illegal businesses. As he mentioned BTRC fixed lowest and highest call rates for the mobile phone operators and BTRC has no plan to fix call rate.
BTRC is a regulatory body to facilitate smooth running of the operators. Some initiatives of BTRC were appreciated during the military back government, and some criticised it for crossing limits of its working periphery. Now a question has been rose how can BTRC set a revenue-earning target of 25 core Taka when it is not an operator. The telecommunication watchdog is even talking on IT education which is part of education ministry. It received licence fees from telecommunication business bodies but many licence holders could not come into the operation. Call centre license has been issued to many call centres on the condition to start operation within six months. But they failed to come in a full-fledged operation.
An unfortunately fact is that IT functions of the country is belong to several ministries and departments. In fact, the functions are scattered that causes duplication of works and lack of better co-ordination is one of the reasons for the stagnation of the ICT sector. We witnessed for a long time departments such as ICT ministry, education ministry, telecommunication ministry, commerce ministry BTRC etc are talking on the same topics. So we need a body in which every department will be united to work in a better co-ordinated manner.
BTRC should specify its mission and work to avoid confusion on its authoritarian mobility. The watchdog should be more people oriented to ensure better services of the operators for the sake of the people. It should know still mobile phone operators earn much by manipulating mobile phone bills, they mislead subscribers by glossy ads, internet bill is too high, home surfers are paying much, future of call centre is dark, IT sector is lagging behind for the absence second submarine cable connection, international call from mobile phone is not affordable, VoIP connection should come at the doorstep of people, WiMax and 3G technology yet to be logged on the country. Instead of applying muscle on telecommunication businessmen BTRC should come with a wise policy alone with innovations to ensure here mentioned services.