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The government has taken an initiative to increase inter-connectivity between private mobile operators and Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) land phones to ensure a 'level playing field'.
The Ministry of Post and Telecommunication (MOPT) and the country's four private cell phone operators have reached a consensus for setting up a hi-breed exchange in the capital to facilitate at least 200,000 inter-connections.
"We have already formed a committee headed by BTTB official Fazlul Haq as to how fast the government can establish a hi-breed exchange," MOPT secretary Mahmud Hassan Mansur told the FE Wednesday.
Currently, only 300,000 out of nearly 4.0 million mobile users have access to BTTB land phones.
The rest are mobile-to-mobile connections, which according to the MOPT secretary, is peculiar and rare in other countries including the South Asian nations.
The private operators have long been asking the government to set up necessary infrastructure to allow them more access to the BTTB land phones and thus cater land phone access facility to the users.
The operators are now under huge pressure because of the commercial launching of Teletalk -- the government owned cell phone -- that facilitates BTTB land phone access to all of its packages.
Private cell phone operators including the largest GrameenPhone with around 2.8 million subscribers have already criticised government role that runs contrary to level playing field.
They alleged that commercial launching of Teletelk with BBTB land phone access is contrary to the normal business atmosphere as the Teletalk aims to provide one million connections in the next couple of years.
A hi-breed inter-connectivity exchange is now being constructed by the private operators in Chittagong. The exchange will be activated in July this year, sources said.
In the proposed hi-breed exchange in Dhaka, sources said the private mobile operators have agreed to contribute like the way they are doing it in establishing the Chittagong exchange.
In the meantime, the BTTB and the private cell phone operators are negotiating on the revenue sharing mechanism for inter-connectivity.
Already the private operators were given a draft on revenue sharing mechanism.
The telecommunications ministry is hopeful that they would settle the issue of revenue sharing, which has long been considered as a contentious issue between BTTB and private mobile operators.
Private operators alleged that the BTTB did not pay any revenue to the operators though BTTB land phones are being allowed access to cell phones.
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