Mobile operators earned Tk 37,152 crore extra from voice calls in 8 years

Mobile operators have earned an additional Tk 37,152 crore from voice calls over the past eight years after BTRC set the minimum voice call price at 45 paisa per minute in 2018, according to data presented by former Robi managing director Mahatab Uddin Ahmed at a discussion organised by Tech Industry Policy Advocacy Platform (TIPAP) at the BASIS office on Sunday, April 5.

Before 2018, subscribers could talk at 10 paisa per minute. Since BTRC's new price determination, calls below 45 paisa have been prohibited.

Mahatab Uddin calculated that mobile operators have been earning an additional Tk 387 crore per month directly from voice calls since 2018, totalling Tk 37,152 crore over eight years across four operators.

He said a significant portion of this additional revenue has come from low-income people who still use feature phones and rely solely on voice calls for communication, remaining outside internet services. "Low-income people are being exploited through the BTRC-fixed voice call floor price," he added.

He termed the floor price an outdated concept and noted no country in the world currently has such a price floor. The floor price has also discouraged operators from expanding internet and digital services, he said.

Robi's Chief Regulatory Affairs Officer Shahid Alam expressed concern that removing the floor price could increase mobile internet prices and reduce government tax revenue. Mahatab Uddin dismissed this as baseless, arguing that reducing the voice floor price would boost data-based services and smartphone use, which would in turn increase government revenue.

He also recommended creating more digital service opportunities for operators and reducing spectrum prices.

Others who spoke at the discussion included BTRC Deputy Director Mohammad Farhan Alam, TIPAP convener Fahim Mashrur, Institute of Chartered Secretaries of Bangladesh president Hosne Sadat, and Banglalink Deputy Director Mostafa Kamal Masud.