Free land phone connections for Mujib year

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Md A Halim
Published : 11:17, Dec 19, 2019 | Updated : 19:51, Dec 22, 2019

A general view of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited office in Dhaka. PHOTO/BTCLOn the occasion of Mujib Year, the Post and Telecommunication department has declared free land phone connections and re-connections.
After the declaration, applications of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited, BTCL, began to be submitted. BTCL’s public relation department says that there is interest among subscribers to get new connections.
This decision was taken by PM’s information and IT related adviser Sajib Wazed Joy in a programme organized on 22 October. The ‘Free telecom’ service was inaugurated during Mujib Year.
Through this, subscribers will get land phone connections free of cost through BTCL. Post and Telecommunication minister, Mustafa Jabbar, said: “We have received unbelievable response. New applications are being submitted every day.”
There’s also interest among land phone users to get reconnected. Land phone to land phone connections are Tk. 150 per month as a package and there’s no monthly line rent Many thought that the BTCL would incur losses but countless calls are going to mobiles from land phones, said the Minister.
Through this initiative, BTCL would recover its lost glory and become more profitable, the minister said.
But the outstanding bills needed to be paid. Re-connections would not be done if bills remained unpaid, he added.
'I have managed to bring three companies – submarine cable company limited, Tele-talk and BTCL in line and soon, Telephone Shilpa Sangshta will come in line.'
On Dec 7 and 8, nine applications were submitted at the Gulshan Exchange and while 180 were submitted at Sher e Bangla Nagar Exchange for new connections.
In 2009, BTCL had more than 10 lakh subscribers and in 2018, the number fell to 6 lakh.
Telephone connections remained inactive as bills remained pending for long time and old connections were disconnected.

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