& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

BTTB fights back with call rate cuts

Md Hasan
State-owned land phone operator BTTB will introduce the market's lowest call tariffs next month as its battles to reverse its fall in subscribers in the face of intense competition from private rivals.
Telecommunications ministry, which runs the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, has decided to cut the cost of calling mobile phones from BTTB phone by around 50 percent to Tk 0.80 per minute fromTkl.50.
It will also cut the tariff within its own network by 50 percent to Tk 0.15 in Dhaka and Tk 0.10 per minute outside Dhaka, which is now on an average isTk 0.30.
Telecom ministry sources said the BTTB's new call rate will come into effect after the approval by finance ministry and Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
In some cases, the new tariff structure is even lower than mobile operators' tariff structure. The mobile operators call charges now range between maximum Tk 2 and minimum Tk0.25 per minute, according to the regulator.
However, mobile phone industry insiders said due to stiff competition average industry call rate now is Tk0.70 perminute.
Private land line operators said BTTB's new tariff structure will definitely help the staterun operator stay in the competition.
The industry has 12 private land phone operators apart from BTTB and six mobile phone operators.
The number of private land phone users more than doubled in the last one year to 3 lakh at the end of March 2008, while state owned BTTB saw its number of subscribers drop, being unable to compete with the better service and cheaper connection of its private rivals.
The private landline operators generally offer Tkl.25 per minute to call any mobile network. To call some specific numbers called friends and family, the private operators offer lowest tariff is Tk0.78 per minutes.
In case of calling its own network private operators' lowest tariff isTk0.25.
The telecom ministry has drastically reduced the call tariff because BTTB has been losing significant number of customers since private landline operators entered the market in 2005.
BTTB last month proposed to the ministry to cut the cost of calling mobile phones from its network by 33 percent to Tkl per minute. It also proposed lowering the rate for calls within its own network by 17 percent to Tk 0.25 per minute fromTk0.30.
Meanwhile, the government has ordered the law and establishment ministries to come up with a report on final draft of the ordinance to turn BTTB into a private company.
According to telecom regu-
lator statistics, the country's total PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) subscribers reached 11.68 lakh at the end March 2008.
Of this number, thel2 pri-vate PSTN operators accounted for 3.151akh customers by the end of March 2008, up 130 percent from the same date a year earlier. In contrast, BTTB actually lost subscribers, down from 8.77 lakh to 8.72 lakh during the same period."Certainly, BTTB's new call tariff will change the entire tariff structure of the land phone market," said Masrur Nawaz Waiz, head of operation and coordination forRankstel.
But private landline operators are still strong enough to sustain in the market as they have lucrative value added services such as low-cost internet, SMS, news service, and ring tone, he said. hasan@thedailystar.net