Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is set to make a public ranking of country's telecom operators based on a few parameters relating to service quality. The move is supposed to affect overall competitive scenario of the telecom industry, industry insiders gauged.
The regulator has recently signed a deal with a Finnish company, Anite Finland Ltd. -- a leading provider of wireless testing technology, to procure and installation of necessary equipment to measure a range of KPIs, such as call-drop rate, received call, MOS, call setup time, call success rates, and other QoS parameters.
Under this deal, the Finnish company will provide periodical reports on above mentioned KPIs. At present, the regulator depends on telcos for these data. Armed with this new equipment, BTRC can itself measure necessary KPIs to ensure smooth customer experience.
BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood said they would start measurement and testing as soon as they get this equipment.
At present, active number of cell phone subscriber is 119.087 million (September 2016). With the rise of subscribers, the number of complaints about service quality of Telcos has increased proportionately. As a result, the regulator was under pressure from different corner to take measure to keep the Telcos accountable. State Minister for Telecom Tarana Halim has repeatedly emphasized on making Telcos compensate for poor network and call drops.
Telecom operators are concerned about the parameters of service quality to be measured and called for a participatory process in setting the standard. “We believe setting service parameters in consultation with the telecom operators before the initiation of the inspection will make it more realistic and logical for a meaningful outcome,” Asif Ahmed, Head of corporate communications of Banglalink said to The Daily Star.
Since the ranking will be made public and will affect market competition, the ranking process should not be made arbitrarily, said Grameen Phone's VP of communication and Corporate Responsibility.
