Although the government has issued a directive to all mobile phone operators asking them to compensate their subscribers to the tune of one minute per call drop or network failure, the country’s cell-phone users hard get the compensation.

Now mobile phone operators provide call-drop data to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) following a directive from the state-run telecom regulator, leaving a question over the accuracy of the call-drop information as the BTRC has no device to track call-drop records, reports UNB.

Ruhul Amin, who has been using Grameenphone SIM, expressed annoyance over the regular call-drop problem.

‘It’s very disgusting when I’m discussing something serious over phone, the line gets disconnected. I face the problem several times a day. Even I don’t know whether I’m getting the call-drop compensation or not,’ Amin, a public bank staff, told UNB.

Businessman Aminul Islam, a subscriber of Robi, said he has been facing the same problem frequently but has not received any compensation as yet.

About Airtel, a journalist wishing anonymity, said, ‘It takes too much time in getting a call connected. Even several attempts go in vain. Once collected, it gets dropped. The situation is getting worse day by day. This is disgusting.’

Contacted, BTRC Chairman Dr Shahjahan Mahmood said necessary high-tech equipment have been procured to set up a device to find out call-drop information.

‘Once installed, we won’t have to depend on the mobile phone operators to get all call-drop data,’ Shahjahan said.

BTRC secretary M Sarwar Alam said they do not know whether the mobile phone operators have been providing accurate data of the dropped calls. ‘However, we can monitor it after the installation of the device,’ he added.

TIM Nurul Kabir, secretary general of Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB), said mobile phone operators are not solely responsible for dropped calls.

‘The government will have to ensure technology to reduce call-drop rate,’ Kabir said while talking to UNB.

State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim said the BTRC will start monitoring the call-drop rate as early as possible.

The ministry has asked the mobile phone operators to pay compensation to all the subscribers in case of more than one call-drop a day, Tarana added.

The mobile phone operators will have to inform their subscribers about the call-drop compensation through SMS from the next month, said the junior minister.

According to the BTRC and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there may be three percent call-drops.

According to BTRC information, there are some 12.31 crore mobile phone subscribers in the country. Among them, six crore use Grameenphone network, 2.70 crore Robi, 82.19 lakh Aritel, 3.13 crore Banglalink and 37.33 lakh Teletalk.