Tk 13,000 cr arrears to mobile operators

Teledensity 105.75 pc in BD

Special Correspondent: The government’s arrears to the country’s mobile operators amounted to Tk 13,725.934 crore. Of this, only Grameenphone has arrears amounting to Tk 10,589.94 crore.
The amount of Grameenphone’s audit objection amounted to Tk 12,589.94 crore. Of this, the company has paid only Tk two thousand crore.
On the other hand, the government owes Tk 1,631.17 crore to state-owned mobile operator Teletalk. The Post and Telecommunication Ministry has been requested to make arrangements for conversion into equity of Tk 1,575.13 crore for their arrears of 3G spectrum assignment fee. However, no instructions were received in this regard.
Post ad Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar said that the audit objection of Robi Axiata is Tk 6 crore 23 lakh 91 thousand 46. Of this, they have paid Tk 138 crore. At present the outstanding amount of the company is Tk 729 crore 23 lakh 91 thousand 46.
Besides, Pacific Bangladesh Telecom (Citycell) owes Tk 126 crore 8 lakh 97 thousand 323. The minister also said that a case was pending in the high court over the arrears of Grameen Bank, Robi and Citycell. He was replying questions of parliament members.
8.80cr mobile subscribers
In response to another question from Nazrul Islam Babu of Awami League, Mostafa Jabbar said that in 2012, there were 8 crore 8 lakh mobile subscribers in the country. In 2022, it increased to 16 crore 34 lakhs. At that time there were no 3G and 4G services in the country. At present, 3G subscribers are 3.19 crore and 4G subscribers are 7.54 crore.
12.42 cr internet subscribers
The minister further said that in 2012, there were 2.69 crore internet subscribers. And this year it has increased to 12 crore 42 lakhs. In 2012, the teledensity in the country was 80.9 percent. Now the teledensity is 105.75 percent. Besides, in 2012, the internet density in the country was 19.99 percent. And now it has increased to 61.56 percent.
Posts, telecommunications and information technology minister Mostafa Jabbar said mobile phone call drop is a major crisis and problem. The government will do everything to solve this problem. He also said that they have been instructed to pay compensation if the call is dropped.
In this regard, Mustafa Jabbar said, ‘Mobile phone call drop is a big crisis and problem. Everyone present here, including me, is a victim of call drop. You have to call once, twice, three times or even four times. In 2009, four crore mobile phones were used in the country.
Now 16 crore mobiles are used in the country. In 2006, 75 million people used the Internet, but now it has surpassed 13 million.
He further said, “Looking at the root of the problems, I have found that: Grameen Phone has 60 million users, Robi has 50 million, Banglalink has 40 million, Teletalk is a little less.” But they did not take the amount of radio waves that need to be taken. We were able to take up to 190 MHz with pressure.
I hope we can solve this problem by December 2022. Then a lot will be solved.
The minister added, “Technology has spread. From 3G to 4G, we’ve entered FiveG this year. Institutions are not able to keep pace with this journey. If they do not solve the problem by 2022, we will be able to impose fines. We have instructed that if the call is dropped, compensation should be given.
Regarding the internet data packages, Mustafa Jabbar said, “Unused internet data packages can no longer be used. That’s why we’ve talked about unused data so that it can be used later. But if I don’t follow the instructions, I can catch Teletalk, but I can’t catch others. They took refuge in the court. But we will do whatever it takes to solve these problems.