BTRC issues show-cause letters to Robi and Banglalink for poor quality of service

After Grameenphone, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has now issued show-cause letters to two other telecom operators – Robi Axiata and Banglalink – for failing to improve the quality of service as directed.

The regulator has asked the telecom operators to explain the reason for their failure within seven working days, according to letters seen by The Business Standard.

A dissatisfactory explanation will result in penalties up to Tk300 crore, as allowed in the Telecom Act, the BTRC added.

BTRC officials said the telecom regulator in previous inspections identified a large number of network sites to be blamed for poor quality of services, resulting in call drops and other issues during phone calls.

The regulator had asked the operators to fix the issues within the set deadline, which prompted BTRC to issue the notices.

For instance, Banglalink was to fix over 1,700 network sites as per an August 2022 letter and more than 500 of them were found to be weaker after the deadline ended recently.

Robi also failed to meet the target of fixing all the identified problems, despite the regulatory instruction, said BTRC officials.

The BTRC on 30 June issued a similar show cause notice to Grameenphone for not using the allocated spectrum enough that causing a poor quality of service and the company already sent their reply.

Banglalink, in a statement, said, “We have always tried to ensure the best quality of service and have actually been able to provide the fastest mobile internet in the country continuously for the last 4 years through heavy investment in network expansion and procurement of spectrum.”

“We always take feedback from our customers and regulators positively and will strive to continue to provide the best service for our customers,” it added.

Robi Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer Shahed Alam in a written comment said “According to the rigorous test carried out by BTRC and our own Technology team, Robi has been found to be offering a better quality of service (QoS) than what is expected as per the quality of service regulation. The show cause notice thus comes as a surprise for us.”

“The critical point here is that the show cause notice is made in reference to the unreasonably stringent interim QoS directive issued by the Regulator. It is like constantly shifting the goalpost.”

“We believe that the existence of such an interim directive on QoS while we have a clearly defined QoS regulation for the same only creates confusion and inconsistency in the regulatory framework for ensuring QoS for our customers. Robi is consistently delivering on QoS requirements and shall respond to the Regulator clarifying our position on the matter in due course.”