The Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumer Association on Sunday called for a public hearing on recently drafted non-geostationary orbit satellite services operator licensing guideline.
Mentioning Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission鈥檚 public hearing on policy formulation and pricing on LNG imports into Bangladesh as an example, the organisation said that a public hearing was a must for taking further consideration of the drafted policy.
In a letter signed by BMPCA president Mohiuddin Ahmed, opinions of the organisation were presented to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on the day.
The letter said that policies should be formulated by making sure that our domestic rules and entrepreneurs did not get harmed in any way.
The organisation opined that revising the policy was needed as there were several hurdles in this policy which might discourage NGSO satellite service operators from investing in the country, the letter read.
The letter urged taking consumer affordability and social context of the country into account before introducing the services, as well as the security of the state and personal information.
鈥業f new technological services are introduced for the welfare of the citizens, considering affordability and social context of the customers and their interests as well as keeping the security of the state intact, we welcome them,鈥� the letter said.
It added that half the population in the country was still not using or outside of the reach of internet services, adding, 鈥楾here is discrimination in the use of the Internet鈥�.
The letter placed a total of five proposals for NGSO services, including determining the cost of satellite-based broadband internet by considering socio-economic and environmental factors and clear mention of internet sharing from each connection.
It proposed that the commission and satellite companies would have to declare nationally the measures to secure citizens鈥� data, as citizens鈥� data protection law had not been enacted in Bangladesh yet.
The BMPCA in the letter said that it was against the norm of constitution for the government intelligence agencies and commissions to have access to customer information on demand.
It demanded that law enforcement agencies or the BTRC should access personal data only with directions from the court in the interests of the state.
The letter further demanded abolishment of existing syndicates providing 鈥楧irect to Home鈥� services and said that DTH services should be fully under the control of the BTRC.
