Warid telecom is struggling to get interconnection deals signed with GrameenPhone (GP) and Banglalink following lower call charges offered by the UAE-based company to its clients.
Telecom sources said the two companies want Warid to raise the charges to the levels they charge, or remain isolated. Instead of, however, denying the interconnection facility upfront, they are resorting to the old tactics of buying time to force Warid to come to their terms.
This is not unexpected from companies like GP and Citicell, who have more or less the same trackrecord of exploiting people taking advantage of the dishonesty of the politicians. But this is quite an unfortunate gesture, particularly from a company like Banglalink, which contributed to bring about a major change in the country's cellphone market.
One of the GP officials while being quizzed by media people at a press conference in Dhaka arrogantly said this is a sellers' market, not a buyers' market. Banglalink's arrival led it to be a buyers' market, where consumers dictate the terms. But it seems Banglalink is now complacent with the share of the market it holds now and joined hands with GP to deny people the right to get a competitive mobile phone market.
We already found campaigns by certain newspapers against Warid and there are reasons to believe that these were orchestrated by the big players in the market. Because these newspapers were mysteriously silent about the cheating of people by one company which sold mobile connection plus set for Tk 150,000 and another company which sold its connection with BTTB interconnection for as much as Tk 40,000.
The BTRC should play a more pro-active role to ensure fair play in the cellphone market.
This is the first, fast and furious Bangladeshi business blog where we talk about Bangladeshi brands and businesses from a consumer experience perspective. We appreciate their good actions, criticize their false promises, expose their internal malpractices, evaluate their accomplishments, business strategies and propose ideas for better branding, better business and protection of our (consumer) rights in the process.
2 comments:
Its very unfortunate that those who are supposed to lead from the front and set examples have held captive a potential mobile user base of 150 million people. GP and BanglaLink are clearly afraid of competition from Warid and are willing to play dirty if needed, at the cost of you and me--the users.
it wasnt accepted frm BL, but may b they learned it frm GP when BL launced wth sims wth cheaper sets nd eventually experienced an unexpected loss wth some backward sabotage of the then leading operators. now its high time fr btrc to wake up frm its decietful slumber nd do smth fr mass people.
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