GP under renewed fire from telecoms minister

The country’s largest mobile phone operator Grameenphone (GP) yesterday came under renewed fire from the state minister for post and telecommunications, Tarana Halim, over its poor services and high call drop rates. At a meeting with telecom operators, held at her ministry against the backdrop of rising allegations from the subscribers, Tarana also said there were allegations against the other operators as well and asked all the operators to resolve the problem over call drops by this year. Apparently dismayed over the GP’s services, the state minister asked the Norwegian telco giant to be ‘more attentive’ to address the problems faced by its subscribers, meeting sources said.
“There are a huge number of complaints against GP. Since you are the largest mobile phone operator of the country, you have to be more cautious about the quality of your services,” the state minister told GP’s Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Sethi, who represented his company at the meeting. She pointed out that despite repeated insistences, GP has failed to address its problems over call drops and its services. She also showed a Facebook post of State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam’s on a projector at the beginning of the meeting.
Disappointed at call drops and poor service of the GP, Alam wrote: “What is the problem with GP? Impossible to make calls. Call drops. Couple of months ago they used to send apology SMS after call drop, no trace of that even!”
The result of a survey was also presented at the meeting. As per the survey, a total 48 per cent respondents said they had faced 1 call drop incident in every 10 calls, whereas, 30 per cent respondents said they came across 2 call drop incidents in the same number of calls.
At one point, Tarana expressed her dissatisfaction over the GP’s failure to compensate its subscribers for call drops. “You have come here to do business and we appreciate that. But doing business by cheating people is not acceptable,” she warned the GP supremo.
In response to the allegation on call drop compensation, Sethi said last year’s announcement to compensate voice call drop with a minute of free talk-time was a promotional offer. The GP CEO also said, as his company has the largest subscribers’ base, the number of complaints is higher than others. He said GP is continuing its investment to address the problems faced by its subscribers. However, the GP official remained silent when the state minister pointed out that she was well-aware of the status of the GP investment for providing quality services. Apart from the GP CEO, Banglalink CEO Ziad Shatara, Robi CEO Supun Weerasinghe, Airtel Bangladesh CEO Prasanta Das Sharma, Citycell CEO Mehboob Chowdhury, and state-owned Teletalk's Managing Director Gias Uddin Ahmed were present.
Later, briefing the media, Tarana said the ministry is working to ensure that subscribers would get quality services from the operators. “Not only the mobile phone operators, we will also sit with the IGW, ICX, IIG, NTTN service operators as the dropped call issue was not of the mobile-phone operators alone. The telecom operators have cited some issues regarding the backbone service providers. After consultations with all the stakeholders, the ministry will announce its steps on these issues,” said Tarana Halim.

 

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GP under renewed fire from telecoms minister

The countrys largest mobile phone operator Grameenphone (GP) yesterday came under renewed fire from the state minister for post and telecommunications, Tarana Halim, over its poor services and high call drop rates. At a meeting with telecom operators, held at her ministry against the backdrop of rising allegations from the subscribers, Tarana also said there were allegations against the other operators as well and asked all the operators to resolve the problem over call drops by this year. Apparently dismayed over the GPs services, the state minister asked the Norwegian telco giant to be more attentive to address the problems faced by its subscribers, meeting sources said. There are a huge number of complaints against GP. Since you are the largest mobile phone operator of the country, you have to be more cautious about the quality of your services, the state minister told GPs Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Sethi, who represented his company at the meeting. She pointed out that despite repeated insistences, GP has failed to address its problems over call drops and its services. She also showed a Facebook post of State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alams on a projector at the beginning of the meeting. Disappointed at call drops and poor service of the GP, Alam wrote: What is the problem with GP? Impossible to make calls. Call drops. Couple of months ago they used to send apology SMS after call drop, no trace of that even! The result of a survey was also presented at the meeting. As per the survey, a total 48 per cent respondents said they had faced 1 call drop incident in every 10 calls, whereas, 30 per cent respondents said they came across 2 call drop incidents in the same number of calls. At one point, Tarana expressed her dissatisfaction over the GPs failure to compensate its subscribers for call drops. You have come here to do business and we appreciate that. But doing business by cheating people is not acceptable, she warned the GP supremo. In response to the allegation on call drop compensation, Sethi said last years announcement to compensate voice call drop with a minute of free talk-time was a promotional offer. The GP CEO also said, as his company has the largest subscribers base, the number of complaints is higher than others. He said GP is continuing its investment to address the problems faced by its subscribers. However, the GP official remained silent when the state minister pointed out that she was well-aware of the status of the GP investment for providing quality services. Apart from the GP CEO, Banglalink CEO Ziad Shatara, Robi CEO Supun Weerasinghe, Airtel Bangladesh CEO Prasanta Das Sharma, Citycell CEO Mehboob Chowdhury, and state-owned Teletalks Managing Director Gias Uddin Ahmed were present. Later, briefing the media, Tarana said the ministry is working to ensure that subscribers would get quality services from the operators. Not only the mobile phone operators, we will also sit with the IGW, ICX, IIG, NTTN service operators as the dropped call issue was not of the mobile-phone operators alone. The telecom operators have cited some issues regarding the backbone service providers. After consultations with all the stakeholders, the ministry will announce its steps on these issues, said Tarana Halim. Related News: The biggest offers the worst(17-03-2014) Grameenphone rejoinder and our reply(20-03-2014) Judge sues Grameenphone, BTRC(04-09-2014) Leasing out rly land to GP: Govt loses Tk 20cr(16-09-2014) Evasion of Tk 3,034cr tax: GP faces fresh audit(02-10-2014) GP evades Tk 400cr tax: NBR(03-10-2014) Call drops belie GP quality claims(15-10-2014) GP says sorry to client for changing package(15-10-2014) The largest offers the slowest GP 2G, 3G internet speed poorest among leading mobile operators Report(20-10-2014) US labour body lodges complaint against GP(21-11-2014) GP employees stage demo across country Services disrupted(22-12-2014) GP workers unrest continues(23-12-2014) GP agrees to pay employees(25-12-2014) GP, Banglalink, Airtel flout guidelines(12-01-2015) GP hits Tk 100b revenue landmark(10-02-2015) Displeasure at GP over job cut(21-05-2015) GP associate firm defaults Tk 33cr VAT payment(26-05-2015) Grameenphone reluctant to provide MNP services to subscribers(12-06-2015) GPs illegal business(18-06-2015) DRU accuses GP of cheating(23-06-2015) GP ghost bills(28-06-2015) GP seeks until Tuesday to fix problem(05-07-2015) NBR seeks bank statements of Grammeenphone (04-08-2015) VIPs SIM cards cloned (17-09-2015) Telcos ride on fake ID cards (20-09-2015) BTRC to start auditing GP on October 20 (07-10-2015) Ministers vent spleen on GP service (15-10-2015)