Govt lifts ban on Grameenphone SIM card sale

The government has lifted the ban on Grameenphone SIM card sale which was imposed last June due to the operator's failure to provide quality service.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) lifted the ban on Monday after finding the operator's improvement in different indices of quality of services, Grameenphone's head of Communication Khairul Basher confirmed to The Business Standard.

Earlier on 29 June, BTRC directed to stop the sale of all types of SIM cards of Grameenphone on the grounds that the service quality of the operator is not satisfactory.

However, it was later learned that the ban was imposed, under the direction of the Department of Posts and Telecommunications, due to the poor network around Padma Bridge on the day of its inauguration.

"On the day of the Padma Bridge inauguration, Grameenphone's network was not good there -- the prime minister saw it. The cabinet secretary then called our secretary [posts and telecommunications division] and expressed his displeasure. The operator continues to get complaints about the poor quality of its service. Moreover, there was also a writ in the court. All these have led to the decision to ban GP SIM card sales," said BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder at an event on 6 November.

The BRTC chairman cited the same reason at another event on 8 November. Both events were attended by Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar, who in several media statements claimed that the poor quality of service including call drops are to blame for the ban.

The decision hit the operator hard as it has lost 16 lakh subscribers since the embargo was issued. As of August, Grameenphone has a subscriber base of 8.31 crore which was 8.48 crore in June.

In mid-September, the commission allowed the operator to sell 13-lakh old unused SIMs considering the high demand for Grameenphone SIM as per the applications of various government and private departments including law enforcement agencies.

However, BTRC backtracked from its decision on 6 November, after the Department of Posts and Telecommunications issued a show cause notice to the commission on 18 October regarding the directive.

"The service quality of the operator has not improved since the suspension of new SIM card sales. The ministry has instructed me to revoke my earlier order that allowed the sale of old SIMs," BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder said when asked about the withdrawal.

Later on 20 November, telecom giant Grameenphone got permission to sell 78,000 sim cards to selective public and private corporate clients such as the Bangladesh Armed Forces, Bangladesh Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

In a letter sent to BTRC on 25 November, Grameenphone asked for the lifting of the ban stating that it had fulfilled the conditions of service improvement.