The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has decided to impose a fine of 1.5 million BDT on the country’s top three mobile operators—Grameenphone, Robi, and Banglalink—for sending excessive promotional SMS to customers.
According to BTRC, each operator will be fined 500,000 BDT for violating the rule of sending more than three promotional SMS per day to customers.
BTRC sources revealed that the regulatory body had decided last year that mobile operators would be limited to sending no more than three promotional SMS per day to any customer. A penalty would be imposed for non-compliance.
Despite a warning in late October last year, Grameenphone, Robi, and Banglalink continued to exceed the daily limit of promotional SMS. In April and May of this year, BTRC sought explanations from the operators.
The operators responded by citing various reasons for exceeding the SMS limit, including issues with handsets, inactive SIM cards, and a delivery rate of less than 70% to customers.
However, BTRC argued that sending more than three promotional messages per day causes undue harassment to customers. After considering the matter, BTRC recently decided to formally fine the three operators.
No official from BTRC was willing to comment on the issue publicly. However, an unnamed official from the Legal and Licensing Division told Jago News, “The operators are trying to downplay the issue. BTRC prioritizes customer welfare in its decisions. After extensive discussions, the final decision has been made, and BTRC will likely proceed with its implementation.”
Top officials from the mobile operators also declined to provide an official response but noted that they had previously offered customers the option to block promotional SMS in compliance with BTRC directives from several years ago.
