BTRC Holds Seventh Public Hearing

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will hold its seventh public hearing on telecommunications services on Wednesday, as part of the National Integrity Strategy Action Plan. For the second time, the online session will be conducted through Convay, a locally developed artificial intelligence-based virtual meeting platform. However, experts have raised questions about whether an online-only format can ensure the broad public participation expected from a public hearing.

The online session will begin on August 19 at 10am and will remain open to registered participants. Participation, however, will depend on the maximum capacity of the online system. Media professionals have also been invited to join the hearing through a Zoom link in addition to Convay.

The BTRC said it had invited individuals and organizations interested in participating to submit questions, opinions and recommendations on telecommunications services and related issues. After reviewing registrations and the relevance of submitted issues, selected and relevant questioners and participants were given access to the hearing. Their necessary meeting IDs and passwords were communicated via email or SMS.

A BTRC official said 2,990 people have registered for the hearing.

Questions over online accessibility
Some experts believe that holding the hearing entirely online could limit its public reach and participation. A significant portion of people connected to the internet in Bangladesh do not have equal access to smartphones, laptops or personal computers. As a result, relying solely on an online system could restrict participation by ordinary consumers.

Meanwhile, people who had registered earlier were contacted by phone and reminded to join the hearing on time. Some participants, however, reportedly faced difficulties after being asked to note down meeting IDs and passwords over the phone.

Second hearing on Convay
The BTRC is holding its public hearing for the second time on Convay, an AI-based virtual meeting platform developed by local company Synesis IT. The commission’s third public hearing was held online in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sixth hearing, held on Convay on November 25, 2025, also featured a wide range of complaints concerning telecommunications services.

The BTRC held its first public hearing at its headquarters on November 22, 2016, focusing on poor voice-call quality and biometric-related problems. Four more hearings were held in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2024. The sixth hearing, held on Convay on November 25, 2025, received around 1,500 complaints.

Key complaints raised
The previous Convay hearing featured complaints about difficulties in obtaining Mobile Number Portability (MNP) services at customer-care centers, alleged muscle power at the ISP reseller level, failure to notify customers before SIMs were deactivated after 11 months, and unauthorized deductions for value-added services (VAS).

Participants also raised issues involving audit dues of three mobile operators, alleged unfair competition involving Grameenphone, Teletalk’s network expansion and the introduction of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls through applications.

Representatives from government, semi-government and autonomous bodies, service providers, mobile users, consumer-rights organizations, professionals, law-enforcement agencies, mobile-phone customer associations, BTRC licensees and their associations, as well as general consumers, have participated in the hearings.

According to BTRC data, more than 29,000 complaints have been submitted across the six public hearings held over the past decade. Most complaints concerned call drops, slow internet, poor network coverage, mobile data and call rates, VAS and SIM ownership-related problems.
//DBTech/Nafiza Anzum/MIS//