Page 155 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2022

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Bangladesh

The number of customers of telecom operators in the country operator, BTRC has recently allowed Grameenphone to sell unused
continued to decline in August, as per the latest data from pre-approved old numbers that were not in operation for over 450
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). days. (October 13, 2022) www.dhakatribune.com
As per the data from the regulator, the total number of customers
in the country dropped by about 500,000 in August to 183.5 million. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission
The country’s top operator Grameenphone alone lost about 950,000 (BTRC) has recently directed International Internet Gateway (IIG)
customers in August, taking its subscriber base from 84 million to service providers to disconnect bandwidth connections of 316
83.1 million. Grameenphone lost another 800,000 customers in internet service providers (ISPs) for not renewing licenses and
July, losing about 0.17 million customers in the last two months. not taking approval of tariffs before rolling out their services. In
However, the country’s other two operators — Robi and Banglalink Bangladesh, the IIG service providers enable the ISPs to cater to end
— added about 200,000 and 300,000 customers respectively in consumers through the exchange of data without the ISPs having
August while state-run operator Teletalk's figures remained almost to go through networks in other countries. However, Md Emdadul
unchanged at 6.7 million. However, the number of customers Hoque, president of the Internet Service Provider Association of
gained by the other two private operators was not sufficient to Bangladesh, told The Daily Star yesterday that 40 per cent of the
cover the number of customers lost by Grameenphone in July ISPs have already regained their connections as they have already
and August. According to sources, the mobile subscribers in the got tariff approvals and applied for renewing licenses. Of the ISPs,
country continued to decline in August after the regulator banned 228 did not take approval of tariffs, 84 did not renew licenses and
Grameenphone from selling new SIMs at the end of June citing its 4 did neither, according to BTRC documents. According to the
inability to provide quality service and high frequency of call drops. Regulatory and Licensing Guideline for ISP in Bangladesh, the
In the two months, the country's mobile subscribers base dropped ISPs must renew their licenses every 5 years and the licensee has
by 900,000 regardless of customer gains by the other operators. to obtain an approval of tariffs before rolling out a service. The
However, on a year-on-year basis, operator subscribers in the telecom regulator also warned that if the IIG service providers
country still have been decent. On a year-on-year basis, the number enabled any new connection to the 316, legal steps would be
of customers of Robi increased by 5.2% to 54.9 million in August, taken as per the telecom act. "We have already disconnected the
while the number of subscribers of Banglalink rose by about 4.7% bandwidth connections," said Aminul Hakim, CEO of IIG service
on a year-on-year basis in June to about 38.7 million. Despite the provider BD HUB. The ISPs can resume their service renewing
recent fall, the number of subscribers of Grameenphone remained their licenses, said Subrata Roy Maitra, vice chairman of the BTRC.
almost unchanged year-on-year in August, retaining its position as In early July, the BTRC had directed the IIG service providers to
the market leader, accounting for 45.30% of the market share based disconnect bandwidth connections of 286 ISPs for not converting
on subscribers. Insiders said the overall growth in the number of their licenses into some categories in accordance with guidelines.
subscribers has slowed down in the industry, but it is expected to There are about 2,000 ISPs in Bangladesh.
gain momentum again once the ban on Grameenphone SIM sales (September 30, 2022) www.thedailystar.net
is lifted. It is also noteworthy that, despite the ban on the telecom

Egypt

The telecom regulator National Telecommunications Regulatory the Egyptian African Telecom Regulatory Center’s (EG-ATRC) third
Authority (NTRA) has announced an increase in daily use of training session have commenced today. EG-ATRC is held in line
mobile internet services by 46 percent during the summer of 2022 with NTRA’s plan to build African cadres in telecommunications
compared with the same period in 2021. The number of mobile as well as exchange experiences, technical and commercial
internet users rose by about 9.4 million. The NTRA said in its report practices with African counterparts in telecom authorities. It also
that rates of fixed internet use increased by 32 percent and that comes in line with the Government’s instructions to reinforce
the number of fixed internet users grew by about 904,000. mutual relations with African countries. Training topics to be
(October 5, 2022) The Daily News embarked upon in EG-ATRC’s third session are type approval
and smart cities, as the African governments seek to maximize
Held by the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the utilization of Egypt’s smart city modules; like the New
Egypt (NTRA) from September 18th to September 22nd, and with Administrative Capital and the City of New Alamein, etc. To this
the participation of 7 African and Arab countries, proceedings of end, the session’s agenda provides opportunities for seamless

155 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022