THE Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission鈥檚 failure to adequately address complaints of mobile users regarding poor network, call drop, slow internet speed, tricky packages, the flushing out of data balance after expiry date and the quality of the overall services of mobile operators is unacceptable. Dozens of customers made the complaints at a public hearing that the commission held on May 8. A number of customers also alleged that they were often charged for services that they had not subscribed to, prices of many services were abnormally high, telecom operators often came up with tricky packages and network coverage and internet services were poor. Most of the complaints were, however, about weak network, poor internet services and tricky packages of both state-owned and private telecom operators. What is unacceptable is that such customer grievances came up at public hearings earlier too, but the commission has yet to address them. At an earlier hearing, the commission chair informed the committee that the commission had received more than 30,000 complaints about services quality in two years.
Poor internet speed, especially mobile internet speed, has come to be ironically characteristic of a 鈥榙igital Bangladesh鈥�. Bangladesh was recently ranked among the worst countries in terms of mobile internet speed by Ookla鈥檚 Speedtest Global Index. In March, Bangladesh came in the 112th position, six notches down from February鈥檚, among 148 countries regarding mobile internet speed, with most South Asian neighbours remaining ahead. The median download speed stood at 24.59Mbps with the median download speed of 313.30Mbps, Qatar claimed the top position in the ranking. The neighbouring India secured the 16th position globally, with the median download speed of 105.85Mbps. Mobile users, even on prime locations such as Dhanmondi in the capital, complained of weak network and call drops. Users have also complained that mobile operators do not carry forward data and unused minutes from packages and, thus, made a profit of thousands of crores from duration-bound packages. Users have for long demanded an end to duration-bound packages, but the commission has yet to address the issue. Users also complained that they have not had the chance to use the 5G network despite the commission having auctioned the 5G spectrum in 2022 and when 5G networks are available in almost all neighbouring countries.
The government and the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission must attend to customer grievances. The authorities must ensure quality network and internet services and carry forward options for unused data and minutes. The commission would do well to allocate the required spectrum or use the 5G spectrum to improve the existing 4G network and put an oversight in place to ensure that internet service providers do not fail to improve their services to global standards.