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More telecoms tariff cuts okayed

NWD call charges cut to Tk 4.50 a minute

Rejaul Karim Byron
Die finance ministry yesterday approved reduced charges for the Nation Wide Dialling (NWD) and international Subscribers Dialling (ISD) calls to compete with the private cellphone operators and curb illegal internet telephony.
The charges for NWD calls have been slashed about 55 percent and ISD 31 percent. Under the new tariff regime, a subscriber can call anywhere in Bangladesh at Tk 4.50 a minute against Tk 10 a minute during peak hours and at Tk 3 against Tk 7.50 during off-peak hours.
A call made within a district will now cost Tk 1.5 instead ofTk 3.0. Die ministry of Post and Telecommunications will issue a gazette notification in a few days, sources said.
The ministry also redefined the peak and off-peak hours from 8:00am to 10:00pm and 10:00pm to 8:00am.
It reduced the air distance category from three to two slabs - from 0 kilometre to 100 kilometres and 101
kilometres and above •• following a proposal forwarded to the ministry by the state-owned Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB).
Die call tariff for the first slab has been fixed at Tk 3 a minute, which was Tk 3 to Tk 6, during peak hours. The call charge would be flat at Tk 1.50duringoff-peakhours.
Die call charge for the second slab have been cut to Tk 6 a minute fromTk lOduring peakhours andTk 3 duringoff-pcakhours.
Subscribers making longdistance calls would primarily benefit from the new tariff regime, which has been approved by finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman, according to sources.
Die ministry has also introduced four zones for ISD calls in place of three zones
Neighbouring and middle-eastern countries including India, Pakistan. Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand. 1 long Kong, Singapore. Malaysia, Saudi Arabia. United Arab Emirates, Qatar,
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Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait will be under Zone-I and the call charge would be Tk 18 a minute during peak hours and Tk 15 during off-peak hours.
The charges were Tk 20 and Tk 15 a minute during peak and off-peak hours for Saarc countries and Myanmar. Call charges during peak and off-peak hours were Tk 30 and Tk 22.50 a minute for middleeastern countries.
Call charges for the zone-II comprising European and some frequently-called countries including Italy, Germany, France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, US and Canada have been refixed at Tk 24 and Tk 18 a minute during peak and off-peak hours. It was Tk 40 and Tk 30 previously.
The finance ministry observed that the reduction of call charges would help the BTTB become more competitive with the private cellphone operators. It also noted that there is no alternative to reducing the ISD call charges in the face of illegal call termination of the internet service providers.
The BTTB would initially count Tk 90 crore a year in revenue loss from NWD calls once the slashed call charges take effect but it would eventually fetch an additional Tk 5 crore as calls would see a rise by about 50 percent.
The state telecoms monopoly would also incur a loss of Tk 26 crore from reduced ISD call charges but its income would be up by an additional Tk 10 crore from the increased ISD calls, the ministry observed.