Shahiduzzaman Khan

Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) has finally hiked its local call rate by up to 300 per cent in the name of introducing a flat rate for all. Only last year, it had reduced the local call rate to Tk 0.15 for the peak hours and Tk 0.10 for the off-peak hours. It is now a flat rate of Tk 0.30 for both local and nationwide dialling (NWD). The new call rates have been made effective from July 1.

The BTCL, still enjoying a state monopoly in land phone business, however, offered its customers a lower rate for making nationwide calls - a flat rate of Tk 0.30 per minute for a call from BTCL to BTCL while Tk 0.65 would be charged to call other operators including mobile phones. Previously BTCL charged Tk 1.50 for per minute talk to land phone connections outside Dhaka while in case of mobile phones, the charge was Tk 1.0. Surprisingly, most of the BTCL subscribers did not have any hint earlier about the would-be hikes in new call rates. When they came to know through media, they were taken by surprise at the big increase in local call charges.

By any criterion, the increase in local call rate is substantial -- beyond the acceptable limit of its large number of clientele. It is not clear as to why call charges to Panchagar and Dhaka would be the same. It could be separated closing in the rank and file. About one third of the BTCL income comes from the local calls. Due to a substantial increase in local call rates, the BTCL income, according to many observers, will fall. Its subscribers will look for alternative operators for fresh connections. Even the BTCL boss admitted this fact. Talking to a media, he, however, defended the hike, saying the previous local charges were fixed at abnormally low prices and according to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) guideline call charges per minute should not be below Tk 0.25. Why was not local call charge fixed at Tk 0.25? To this question, he said Tk 0.30 per minute call charge would save some money for the company. But the company would gain from free land telephone connections at district and upazila levels, which were launched from the same date. The BTCL chief said they expected to earn an amount of Tk 17 billion this year, of which Tk 13 billion being its net profit, in view of its 'diversified steps for business promotion'.

After the launching of mobile and private land-phone by private operators, the scenario has drastically changed. Instead of on-the-wait list for a number of years, anyone willing to install a land phone at his/her residence or business place can now get it in a day from private land phone company and start using it under pre-paid or post-paid arrangements. In case of mobile phone, any one can buy the SIM card, handset and use it in a couple of hours. The quick, hassle-free and relatively cheap service by private operators threw the BTCL in the face of a great challenge. Although it had promised to give quicker service after being corporatised, it has not yet succeeded to meet the expectation. Applicants for land phone connections still have to wait for unspecified period of time and visit the divisional engineers' offices quite frequently. In spite of the fact that BTCL had reduced ISD call charge to Tk 6.0 from Tk 7.0 per minute, it is still one of the highest call rates in the world. Then again, trouble with ghost billing and phone shifting still haunts the customers.

According to some analysts, the restructuring process of the erstwhile BTTB was done hastily. If the restructuring intends to improve efficiency and deliver better services to the citizens, then why was it done so haphazardly? Without proper planning, the BTCL is now sitting on the fence, heading towards an unknown direction. The main objective behind such corporatisation was to reinvigorate the activities of the board, bedevilled with bureaucratic tangles and corruption. After the changeover, it is the same age-old bureaucracy, petty corruption, nepotism and favouritism that are plaguing the newly formed company. It is yet to come out of the age-old inertia.

Mere change in names or organisational restructuring is unlikely to help achieve the desired objectives. So, mere corporatisation is not the sole answer to the problems facing the public sector organisation. Something more needs to be done to ensure transparency, accountability and good management in these entities.

To make the BTCL a competitive telecom service-provider, it will have to provide customers with truly integrated service offerings that include fixed line, Internet connection and non-payment channels. Coupling Internet with land-phone is proposed because voice and data network are merging and a single network for data and voice is a need of the time.

Moreover, the BTCL can best serve the customers by devising strategies to meet the needs of specific customer segments. Offering different service packages at different price-caps may tailor the customer needs. Segmentation of the market on the basis of customers' need and income will increase the demand for telecom services.

szkhan@thefinancialexpress-bd.com