Telecom complaints double, one-third solved
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission received more than 14,000 complaints last year, almost double from a year ago, because of the inclusion of new options to lodge grumbles.
However, only 37 percent of the complaints were resolved in 2019, way lower than 93.44 percent a year ago.
Most of the complaints were about bar on mobile connection, network problem, quality of service, tariff issues and mobile number portability, according to a report of the commission. The report was released yesterday.
The flow of grievances started piling up after May 16, when the telecom watchdog began keeping a call centre open round the clock along with the regular process of receiving objections during office hours.
A good number of complaints remained pending, while more than half did not get any response.
From May 2018 to April 2019, the commission received 7,908 complaints and resolved 7,390.
However, the mobile operators explained the situation from a different point of view.
The restrictions on top two players on network expansion have impacted the overall service quality, which fuelled the number of complaints, they said.
Over 40 percent of the complaints, or 5,646, were lodged against Robi, the second largest mobile phone operator with 4.87 crore active connections as of November. The BTRC resolved 45 percent of them.
Robi topped the list in the previous year too, when 3,427 complaints were placed between May 2018 and April 2019.
Robi has always taken pleasure in addressing complaints of its customers, said Shahed Alam, chief corporate and regulatory officer of the company.
“Each complaint gives Robi an opportunity to forge a deeper relationship with its customers,” he told The Daily Star.
The firm commitment to ensuring good quality service has convinced nearly five crore customers to remain with Robi network, Alam said.
“In this context, we need to keep in mind that the reported number of complaints is only 0.008 percent of our customer base. Although few in numbers, we look forward to addressing them with utmost pleasure.”
Last year, 3,630 complaints, down from 2,413 in the previous year, were submitted against Grameenphone, the market leader with about 7.61 crore active connections as of November.
However, the operator resolved only 27.16 percent, or 986 complaints.
Grameenphone resolved almost 99 percent of customer complaints lodged through the BTRC hotline in 2019, the operator said in a statement.
“Our dedicated team interacts with our customers daily and serves the best to solve problems and technical issues. Moreover, our user-friendly digital touchpoints have become a useful tool to meet customers’ needs in this digital era.”
Banglalink customers sent 1,488 complaints, down from 1,157 from May 2018 to April 2019.
The third biggest operator resolved about half of the complaints, the BTRC report showed.
Teletalk faced 1,363 complaints and Bangladesh Telecommunications Company (BTCL) 59. The state-owned mobile operator sorted 138, while the state-run landphone operator did not respond to the objections at all.
Once the most dominant market player, BTCL is currently struggling to survive with about five lakh active connections. The telecom regulator also received 1,681 complaints in other segments, of which 46.46 percent—the highest—were resolved.
