The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is planning to allocate 450 MHz spectrum to the country's mobile operators in next two years, a BTRC official revealed this in a virtual public hearing.
Replying to a question in the hearing, the BTRC high officials admitted poor service quality of mobile network operators. They also identified lack of enough spectrum against the increasing demand as one of the key reasons behind such poor service quality.
"We will allocate 450 MHz new spectrum to operators, and hope that by the end of 2022 their service quality will improve further," Brigadier General Shahidul Alam, director general (spectrum) of the BTRC, told the hearing.
Clients and journalists raised questions and lodged complaints regarding poor service quality, slow internet speed, and call drop etc in the virtual hearing.
Replying to the complaints, BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Shikder said they were working relentlessly to improve the service.
"Two committees were formed to investigate the reasons behind poor service quality."
The BTRC said it had resolved 60 percent complaints raised in 2019, which was the last hearing before the Covid-19 break out.
Replying to a question, the BTRC chairman said the regulator would not allow a few internet service providers (ISPs) to dominate the market and suppress other small ISPs.
"If we get specific complaints, we'll certainly take measure regarding those," he added.
BTRC Director General Brigadier General Nasim Parvez said service quality does not depend on operators' service only, but it also depends on quality of users' handsets.