Telecommunications giant Grameenphone is authorized to sell 78,000 SIM cards to select public and private corporate clients such as the Bangladesh Defense Forces, Bangladesh Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) relaxed restrictions on Sunday after banning the sale of GP SIMs in late June, citing “poor service.”
They include selective corporate sales being limited to series assigned to the entity and Grameenphone not charging a fee for new connections. I have.
In the first week of September, regulators allowed GP to sell 13 million old unused SIM cards given “high demand for Grameenphone connectivity”. However, it reversed its decision in early November.
“…the quality of GP’s service has not yet improved,” BTRC chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder told journalists at the time.
The latest green light for GP SIM does not mean that the service quality of carriers has improved, Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Mustafa Jabbar told Business Standard on Sunday.
“Generally, the military and other corporate entities issue the same number of specific series to new recruits. With that in mind, we approved selective and conditional sales,” he said. rice field.
Mustafa Jabbar said, “But we cannot allow Grameenphone to sell SIMs to people because the quality of service has not yet improved.
Hossain Sadat, Senior Director of Corporate Affairs at Grameenphone, said he was surprised by the regulator’s decision.
“Even after delivering on our promise to improve our network, we are still surprised by this decision,” he told The Business Standard.
He said the ban would be counterproductive for digital Bangladesh and foreign direct investment.
“We will continue our ongoing discussions with regulators towards an amicable resolution,” he added.
