[ Last page ] 2010-04-24Mobile phone subscribers are going to enjoy lower SMS rates as the telecommunication regulator has decided to reduce the tariff rate of short messaging service.
"The current SMS rate is Tk 1 to Tk 2 depending on the operators and the BTRC has decided to cut the rate substantially," Zia Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission told the FE.
The BTRC has also decided to ask the mobile phone operators to take complaint calls for free to pass on more benefit to the subscribers, he said.
"We have formed a committee to do a study on to what extent SMS charges can be reduced and after getting the report, we will ask the operators to cut the rate," he added.
In recent times, people are using SMS widely to exchange greetings and giving important messages to others and the volume is substantially big, Mr Zia said.
The SMS costs of the operators are already low, and that may not create much of a pressure on them for decreasing the tariff rate, he added.
There are six mobile phone operators offering services in the country with Grameenphone being the top performer. The other operators are Banglalink, Robi, Warid, Teletalk and CityCell.
There is a huge untapped market in the country as only 30 per cent of the population is using the mobile technology.
Mr Zia said the commission is pursuing to make the Dhaka city cleared of broadband internet cables and shift the entire network underground.
"We will follow the slogan 'better city and better living' and for that we need to replace the equipment on the surface with underground apparatus," he explained.
The work is going on to set up the underground network and broadband operators will get the service very soon, he added.
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