Bangladesh has achieved half of the targets it set to ensure the quality of service for mobile phone subscribers in the country, according to a survey conducted by the SATRC over last one year.

The survey report was released at the three-day 17th South Asian Telecommunication Regulators’ Council which began in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Telecom regulators of nine countries are participating in the council to discuss the overall situation of the telecom industry in the region.

According to the SATRC report titled ‘Measures to Protect Interest of Consumer of Telecom Service’, the overall consumer protection of the telecom industry was categorised into five broad sections — complaint redressal, quality of service, billing accuracy, unsolicited calls and mobile number portability.

The report, presented by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India adviser Bhavana Sharma, showed that Bangladesh failed to achieve basic parameters like audit of QoS, survey on customer satisfaction and generating point of interconnection congestion report.

The country, however, has secured a satisfactory level in setting QoS standards, network outage and generating performance monitoring report.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in August last year launched in 100 spots in the country a QoS survey that included technical analysis and customer satisfaction survey, but yet to finalise the report.

The SATRC survey also showed that Bangladesh had scored a satisfactory position in all three parameters of billing accuracy along with India while Afghanistan and Bhutan failed in all three parameters of billing accuracy.

Bangladesh has also secured a satisfactory position in four out of six parameters in complaint redressal and failed in two while India was the top scorer in the category by achieving all six parameters.

The BTRC recently launched a complaint centre for the subscribers but the complaint system is not toll free, even at the operator level, contrary to the SATRC standards.

In unsolicited call prevention Bangladesh only scored in one parameter, having an order against such calls, but failed in all other parameters like telemarkerts’ registry, separate number scheme for telemarketers, toll-free number to complain against unsolicited calls.

Bangladesh also failed in all four parameters of the MNP service as the country has recently suspended the MNP licence auction for an indefinite period while India and Pakistan successfully introduced the service.

Asked about the issue, BTRC chairman Shahjahan Mahmood told New Age that Bangladesh complied with 14 out of the total 24 parameters mentioned in the SATRC report.

‘So we are in a good shape already. I hope that by next year we will comply with the remaining 10 parameters of customer protection,’ he said.