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Incoming Call From BTTB Cellphone operators to cut charges soon Monjur Mahmud Mobile phone users will no more have to pay for incoming calls from BTTB land phones as cellphone operators at long last have agreed to withdraw the existing tariff and sign a deal with the state-run telecom agency shortly. "All the cellphone operators have agreed to withdraw incoming call charges from the BTTB fixed phones. We are going to sign a revised revenue-sharing agreement with the BTTB this week," a top official of GrameenPhone, a leading cellphone operator in the country, told The Daily Star yesterday. After signing the deal, all mobile phone operators will fix a date and announce withdrawal of incoming call charges, he added. The Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board has a revenue-sharing agreement with Teletalk Bangladesh, the state-run mobile phone operator, and the Teletalk users do not need to pay incoming calls from its fixed phone service. Presently, mobile phone users who have access to the BTTB land phones pay as high as Tk 2 per minute excluding tax for receiving calls from those fixed phones. The mobile phone operators have repeatedly said they will not take any money for incoming calls from BTTB phones once a new revenue-sharing agreement comes into effect. According to the agreement, in case of making a call from a mobile phone network to BTTB land phone, cellphone operators will have to pay Tk 0.70 per minute, but the BTTB will continue to take an advantage for a couple of years. After withdrawing incoming call charges, the BTTB will have to pay at a rate of Tk 0.40 up to December in 2006, Tk 0.50 in 2007, Tk 0.60 in 2008, and Tk 0.70 in 2009 for calling from its network to the cellphone networks. "BTTB revenue is on sharp decline but the revenue sharing with mobile phone operators will be equal from 2009 onwards," said a BTTB official. The mobile phone operators will also be able to offer economic overseas calls to 25 countries at a flat rate of Tk 7.5 per minute like the state-owned BTTB. Sources said the BTTB may need to pay the cellphone operators Tk 2 per minute for outgoing international calls from mobile phones and Tk 1 for incoming international calls to the mobile networks. The BTTB imposed Tk 1.50 per minute tariff on April 19, 2006 for making calls to any mobile phone from its fixed phones without signing any agreement with the cellphone operators. Before imposing new tariff, the state-run agency used to charge Tk 1.50 for five minutes during peak and 8-to-10 minute during off-peak. In absence of a revenue-sharing agreement, the BTTB land phone users are now paying four times more than what they used to pay in case of calling from BTTB land phone to cellphone. In a bid to settle the revenue-sharing between the BTTB and the mobile phone operators, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) earlier proposed a revenue-sharing agreement after a meeting with them and the finance ministry has already approved it. Source : Click This Link