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.

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