The victims and their well-wishers formed a human chain in front of the National Press Club on Thursday demanding ‘refund of unused data and talk time, sale of SIMs with bundle packages and stop premium SIM black market. The president of the organization, Mohiuddin Ahmed, presided over the human Chain in the morning under the banner of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers’ Association.
At the time, he said, it was a long-standing demand of the customers and a demand from our organization to refund the unused internet data and talk time to the customers. Later, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications issued an order on August 2 last year to refund unused data to customers. Instructions were also issued from BTRC. The two conditions were that the customers had to recharge the same package or the same package earlier before the expiry date. Due to their difficult equation, customers have not benefited from this guidance till date.
Explaining about data fraud and bundle SIM black market, Mohiuddin Ahmed said, let’s say a common customer buys 1 GB or 1.5 GB data for 36, 46 or 56 taka, which has a validity of three days, but that customer may use WiFi at office and home. Used 500 MB but can’t use that data anymore as its unused period is fixed within three days. Now imposing all these conditions on a customer he has to use ledgers which is kind of ridiculous. Our statement is that any package of any term purchased by the customer and his previous data usage will be associated with that package. And its balance sheet should be communicated to the customer through message. Apart from this, we are noticing that 01711 series SIM is being sold from the country’s leading operator GP Center, the price of the SIM is 300 taka, but it is mandatory to buy a bundle of 4400 taka recharge minutes! The total cost of the SIM is Tk. 4700. This recharge does not show the balance of Tk. 4400!! With this amount, the customer will get 7200 minutes in 6 months, 1200 minutes per month. Now if the customer cancels after 3 months then his minutes will be canceled as soon as he cancels it is mandatory to buy 6 months talktime if he wants to buy a SIM which is sold by GP. Within 6 months the customer will not be able to switch to another operator as a matter of principle he will not get bundled minutes in his recharge which is not desirable at all. Our point is that all these bundle packages should be canceled as it is a type of monopoly which is against the market significance regulation 2018.
He also said, we are also noticing that the customer is not able to buy the premium series SIM due to the syndicate of some of the operator’s employees. Also, thousands of premium series numbers posted at high prices for SIM sale are seen in various online groups, which is against Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulation Act 2001 and BTRC guidelines. Also, many customers have been cheated while buying SIM online in this way. There have been news about several customers who have been cheated on this.
Referring to their investigation, the President of the Mobile Phone Consumers Association said, “We have come to know that 7/8 people are controlling the online SIM sales syndicate across the country.” They have their own syndicate seller code! One side seller of this syndicate tells about the source of these SIMs, they provide the premium series SIMs for sale at higher prices directly from the operator’s officials/employees SIM log, stock house, customer care. If they sell these SIMs online with ads in different groups created by them, then all those bosses give them a certain amount of commission. We all request the law enforcement agencies to bring these black marketers under the law quickly and also request the regulatory agencies to take necessary action.
Central member of the organization Mita Rahman, office secretary Sheikh Farid, Dr. Aminul, Advocate Saheda Begum, President of Mobile Phone Recharge Association Aminul Islam Bulu, Central Leader of Gana Sanghati Bachchu, Leader of Human Rights Organization Sohel Ahmed Mridha, Abul Kashem Majumdar etc. Common customers also raised their grievances at the event.