BTRC seeks in-depth mobile industry study

Bangladesh needs an in-depth study of its mobile industry to balance spectrum pricing, business efficiency, consumer interests and digital transformation, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Major Gen Md Emdad Ul Bari (retd) said on Saturday.

He made the call while addressing a roundtable titled “Spectrum for a Connected Bangladesh: Enabling Internet for ALL” at a city hotel.

The BTRC chairman said the regulator had been urging the telecom industry for the past two years to conduct such a study, but no organisation had undertaken the work.

“As the auction period was approaching, we have engaged a research team of BTRC to conduct a study, but I do not think they will be able to complete such an in-depth study within this short period,” he said.

He urged the Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and AMTOB to conduct research on how business opportunities could be optimised alongside digital transformation.

The dialogue was organised by the Telecom and Technology Reporters’ Network (TRNB), with its President SM Masuduzzaman Robin in the chair. General Secretary Faruque Hosain delivered the welcome address.

Emdad Ul Bari said the proposed study should establish a balance among the interests of people, businesses and the government and support informed decision-making in the telecommunications sector.

“The government wants to provide services to people. If we do not support business, it will not be able to provide services. But if people do not receive services, we cannot support business,” he said.

He said his starting point would always be whether people were receiving services.
“I will not support services to save business; I will support business to save services,” he said.

The chairman called for a general equilibrium among the three stakeholders and said accountability should be created around that balance.

The BTRC chairman said spectrum pricing should not be determined solely from the perspective of government revenue.

Consumer interests, service quality and business cost efficiency also needed to be considered, he said.
Bangladesh currently has around 2.29 MHz of spectrum per million subscribers, which is at the lower end of the global standard of 2-6 MHz per million subscribers under GSM standards, he said.

In a 5G scenario, the requirement would rise to 6-12 MHz per million users, while Bangladesh would require around 1,500 MHz by 2035, according to the chairman.

He said spectrum pricing should also be assessed against regional standards, with the benefits ultimately passed on to subscribers.

Although Bangladesh’s data prices could be considered cheap by global standards, they were not necessarily the cheapest in the region, he said, adding that purchasing power also needed to be taken into account.

The country needs an in-depth study to identify a “sweet point” where government revenue, business cost efficiency and service optimisation can be balanced, Emdad Ul Bari said.

BTRC was also conducting research to encourage greater spectrum utilisation, particularly in remote, risky and deprived areas, he added.

He urged the media to take a 360-degree perspective when reporting on spectrum pricing and related decisions.

The regulator would continue conducting research to ensure its decisions were based on evidence rather than assumptions, he said.

“So that our decisions are not decisions received in a dream,” he said.