Mobile operators are demanding an additional revenue if the app-based calls are generated using mobile data instead of broadband data. Out of Tk0.40, local operators pay Tk0.10 per minute as interconnection charge to mobile operators and Tk0.04 per minute for off-Net calls to interconnection exchange operators.Īfter these, IPTSPs are left with Tk0.26, including tax. 'The call generating tendency of users has fallen dramatically as the cost of calls is the same for both mobile operators and app-based call providers,' said Md Junayed Ahmed, managing director at local technology company Level3 Career.Ĭalls from call centres have become costlier too, he added.Īpp-based calling services charge Tk0.40 per minute. The volume of calls has not risen even after the joining of the state-owned Alaap in the sector. The AMTOB urged the regulatory commission not to allow more OTT operators and to set the same tariff for OTT calls as for mobile operators.īefore the tariff hike, three service providers used to connect 20 lakh calls per day. Grameenphone would lose Tk1,693 crore per year while the government would lose Tk576 crore in revenue. The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB), a platform of mobile operators, in a letter to the BTRC in 2019, said that because of OTT calls, market leader Since the beginning, mobile network operators have been opposing local OTT calls as they take away a slice of revenue earnings from them. The services were increasingly getting popular until the call rate went up, said Md Hasibur Rashid, director and chief marketing officer at NovoTel Limited that owns Brilliant Connect. Three other local platforms that have been facilitating app-based calls are InterCloud Limited's Brilliant Connect, Amber IT IP Phone and Link3 Technologies Ltd's DIAL. The rest are providing services at call centres, like 999 national emergency service Bangladesh. Of those who got the licences, four IPTSPs rolled out app-based call services with state-owned Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited's Alaap being the latest in April.

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