No:
BTRC/SS/Common-Directives (658) Part-2/2014-112
Subject:
Date: 12/03/2015
Directives on Service and Tariff (2015).
The Directives on Service and Tariff (2015), formulated through exhaustive
consultations with the stakeholders, is circulated herewith for forthwith implementation.
Attachment: Booklet of Directives on Service and Tariff.
(Lt Col Mohammad Zulfikar, psc)
Director
Systems & Services Division
To:
1.
2.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), all the applicable entities.
BTRC’s Web-Site.
Page 1 of 1
Directives on Service & Tariff
2015
Systems & Services Division
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission
IEB Bhaban, Ramna, Dhaka-1000.
Directives on Service and Tariff
PREAMBLE
With the onus and power vested in by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Act,
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission is committed to systematically rendering the
national telecommunication systems capable of delivering reliable, affordable, and modern
telecommunication services
to
wider
population, by encouraging
and
facilitating innovation, investment,and comparative advantage through market-led fair competition in the
telecommunication industry of Bangladesh. The Commission, to this end, has issued many directives as
and when required. While most of these directives remain squarely relevant to date, some
need tobe modified andsome more incorporated, to
cope
with the expeditious socio-technoeconomicenvironments. The
present
Directives
on Service and Tariff (2015),
which
is formulated through a processof exhaustiveconsultations with the principal driving force of the industry
– the Operators, – aims at consolidating such apposite directives that will continue to have wider
relevance across the industry in foreseeable future.
As it is with most regulatory frameworks, success of these directives will largely depend on
the endorsement of their spirit as well as their spontaneous compliance by all stakeholders. It is,
therefore, expected that all the licensees
of telecommunication
services
will avidly collaborate in
developing inclusive, enabling, and sustainable telecommunication systems so essentially required in
connecting knowledge, skill, and technology in order to steer development and generate impetus to move
the country towards a poverty-free middle-income prosperous Digital Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
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Directives on Service and Tariff
INDEX
Clause
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
Title
Preliminaries
Definitions
Systems and Services
Tariff and Charging
Promotional Activity
Market Communications
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Directives on Service and Tariff
I.
PRELIMINARIES
1. Short Title
These directives shall be cited as the “Directives on Service and Tariff (2015)” and
henceforth referred in this document as the “Directives”.
2. Applicability
a. This Directives shall apply forthwith to all Licensees who provide
telecommunication services in Bangladesh. Licensees are required to obligate
their agents and representatives to adhere to this Directives.
b. These directives are issued pursuant to the provisions of the Bangladesh
Telecommunication Regulatory Act 2001 vested in
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (the Commission).
Bangladesh
c. These directives are in addition to and complement other laws of Bangladesh
and Regulatory Frameworks of the Commission, and as such, nothing in this
Directives shall be deemed to excuse, qualify or modify the Licensees’
obligations to any other laws of Bangladesh or Regulatory Frameworks or the
Commission.
d. This Directives, however, shall replace the following documents. In addition,
whatever is mentioned in this Directives shall be considered as the latest with
respect to similar provisions mentioned in other directives issued by the
Commission:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
ix.
x.
xi.
xii.
xiii.
Interim Directives on Tariff and Marketing Promotion, No: BTRC/SS/Tariff/2002600, Dated: 26/07/2007.
1st Amendment to the Interim Directives on Tariff and Marketing Promotion, No:
BTRC/SS/Tariff/2002-58, Dated: 07/02/2008
2nd Amendment to the Interim Directives on Tariff and Marketing Promotion, No:
BTRC/SS/Tariff(Part-1)/2008-539, Dated: 24/03/2009
3rd Amendment to the Interim Directives on Tariff and Marketing Promotion, No:
BTRC/SS/Tariff(Part-1)/2008-559, Dated: 29/04/2009
BTRC/SS/SMS tariff/2010-892, Dated: 05/08/2010
Amendment to Interim Directives on SMS based PRS and the Amendment to Interim
Directives on Tariff and Market Promotion, No: BTRC/SS/Directives(402)/2012-155,
Dated: 31/03/2013
Interim Directives on IPTSP Tariff and Market Promotion, No: BTRC/SS/IPTSPTariff/2009-719, Dated: 09/02/2010
1st Amendment to the Interim Directives on IPTSP Tariff and Market Promotion, No:
BTRC/SS/IPTSP-Tariff/2009-127, Dated: 05/05/2011
Tariff Approval in favour of CMPO, IPTSP and PSTN, No: BTRC/SS/ITU
Project Cost Modeling (271)/2011-114, dated: 30/04/2012.
BTRC/SS Service/2012-249, Dated: 02/08/2012
BTRC/SS/GP VAS/part-1/2012-277, Dated: 29/08/2012
BTRC/SS/Dynamic Pricing (540)/2013-316, Dated: 11/07/2013
BTRC/SS/Tariff (part-1)/2008-596, Dated: 24/06/2009
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Directives on Service and Tariff
e. The Commission’s interpretation of any clause, or a part thereof, of this
Directives shall stand as final.
f.
The Commission shall preserve the rights to review, nullify, add, modify or
amend whole or part of this Directives without prior notice.
g. The Commission shall make suitable arrangements to monitor the compliance
of this Directives and deal with any breach(es) accordingly.
II.
DEFINITIONS
The words and phrases used in this Directives shall have the same meaning as are ascribed to
them in the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Act 2001, and its subsequent
amendments, unless this Directives provide for or the context of the usage of the words or
phrases requires otherwise. For the purpose of this Directives, following words and phrases shall
have the meanings ascribed to them below:
1. “Access Network Service Provider (ANSP)” means the entity that has valid license
issued by the Commission to build, own, and operate the access-network which
eventually connects the end-user or consumer with the service(s) primarily for which
the particular license is issued with. Therefore, CMPO, ISP, IPTSP, BWA, PSTN,
VTSP, VSATP etc. kinds of licensees are regarded as ANSP.
2. The “Act” means the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Act 2001 and its
subsequent amendments.
3. “Approval” means the approval of the Commission, as per the Sections 30-34, 40
and 48 of the Act issued in favour of an applicant concerning issues relevant to any
particular Service.
4. “Billing Period” means the period of time for which a consumer is actually charged
or ‘billed’ for the time-window based service offer that s/he subscribed.
5. “Call-Agent Based Service” means voice-call or video-call that entails expertise of
the call-agent (e.g. doctor, engineer, agriculturist, lawyer, emergency response team
etc. in the form of call-center, live-agent, etc.).
6. “Charging Interval” means the pre-determined ‘Interval’, e.g. the maximum
amount of time, character, data-volume, usage, etc., for the consumption of whole or
part of which a consumer is allowed to be charged for that entire Charging Interval at
the rate specified for either the Charging Unit or the Charging Interval. Charging
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
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Intervals for some services are authorized by the Commission, while that for others
are stipulated by the Service Provider. For example, for consuming 5 second of talktime (usage), a consumer is allowed to be charged for a maximum duration of 10s
(Charging Interval, or ‘Pulse’ in this case, authorized by the Commission) at the
specified amount per second (Charging Unit). For another example, for consuming
50MB data in a package of 100MB, the consumer may be charged for entire 100MB
(Charging Interval) at the rate pre-determined by the Service Provider for
this Charging Interval.
7. “Charging Unit” means the smallest unit of time, character, data-volume, usage, etc.
used to ‘calculate’ tariff/fee/charge of a service/product.
8. “Closed User Group (CUG)” means a group of consumers on the same
telecommunication and/or internet network who communicate with each other by
mutual agreement, and who exclude others.
9. The “Commission” means the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
Commission.
10. “Connection” means the right and technical-connectivity of an end-user
or consumer to avail telecommunication services from the Service Provider. The
common
examples
of
object/media/product/connectivity/smart-card/virtualaddress(s)/embedded-system etc. used for providing the Connection to the end-user
or consumer are: RUIM, SIM, modem, router, wired connection, IP/Port addresses,
software, embedded system/chip etc.
11. “Consumer” means the consumer defined by the Act.
12. “Content Provider (CP)” means the entity that owns the Intellectual Property Right
(IPR) of a content, either by being the original designer/creator/producer or the legalowner of the content (information or entertainment related audio-visual media, for
example) and/or software/platform (game, application, widget, etc.) used to deliver
the service to the consumers of the Service Provider.
13. “Cost Model” means the diversely categorized tariff-frameworks that are issued by
the Commission, which depict different tables of tariffs, fees, charges, revenue
shares, Charging Intervals, charging units, content types, delivery methods, etc.
14. “Differential Baseline Tariff” means a special arrangement (usually
different/lowered baseline tariff/fee/charge) in the tariff structure, for a given
time/condition, to preserve/promote any part of the industry, as deemed necessary by
the Commission under the provisions of the Act.
15. “Dynamic Charging” means a charging system that entails variable tariffs as per predetermined varying conditions. The tariff for each charging unit of service in a
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Directives on Service and Tariff
Dynamic Charging system, for example, may vary according to the varying network
utilization of last 24 hours.
16. “Effective Rate” means the rate of charge of a service, considering any relevant offer
in its entirety (including freebies, bonus, discount, reward, etc. given in terms of
that service), at which the consumer is actually required to pay for availing that
service.
17. “Grade of Service (GoS)” means the probability of a call/session in a
circuit/connection group in telecommunication, internet or other networks being
blocked/delayed/timed-out for more than a specified (standardized as ‘tolerable’)
interval, expressed as a vulgar fraction or decimal fraction. This is always with
reference to the business-hour when the traffic-intensity is the greatest. In other
words, GoS is the minimum QoE caused by minimum QoS in a network.
18. “Interactive Voice Response (IVR)” means a technology that allows human to
interact with computer through the use of voice and DTMF tones. Out-Bound
Dialing (OBD) platforms are required to provide IVR based services (RBT, RRBT,
Answering Machine, Tele-Marketing etc.
19. “Law Enforcement Agency (LEA)” means an entity recognized by the Ministry of
Home Affairs (MoHA) as to be able to monitor/record/interfere/intervene
telecommunication services by the powers vested in it under Section 97(a) of the Act.
(As of the date of issuance of this Directives, LEA includes NTMC, DGFI, NSI, SB
and RAB of Bangladesh Police and BCG). In addition, the Commission is also
authorized, by the Act, to monitor, interfere, and demand information and/or
instrument from any entity operating its business in the telecommunication sector of
Bangladesh.
20. “Licensee” means an entity that possesses a valid license of Telecommunication
Service(s) in Bangladesh as provided for in the Act.
21. “Location Based Service (LBS)” means an information service which is accessible
with mobile devices through the mobile network, and which uses information on the
geographical position of the mobile device. LBS may include services to
identify/discover the desired person/device e.g. nearest banking cash machine (or
ATM), the whereabouts of SUG/employee etc. LBS also includes parcel tracking,
vehicle tracking, mapping, weather forecast services, even location based games.
22. “Market Communications” means the advertising as well as other techniques such
as promotions, sponsorships, direct marketing, etc., and is broadly interpreted to mean
any communications produced directly by or on behalf of marketers intended to
promote products or to influence consumer behavior. Market Communications are the
means by which the marketers attempt to inform, persuade and remind the consumers,
directly or indirectly, about the products and brands that they sell.
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Directives on Service and Tariff
23. “Migration” means a consumer’s act of shifting amongst technically feasible choices
of offers of service(s) provided by the same Service Provider.
24. “Offer” means an in-market plan or proposal containing pricing that is made by
a Service Provider for the provision of Telecommunication Service(s) products (new,
regular,
converted
regular,
promotional, etc.),
which
is
available for consumption by any individual consumer or consumer as a class and
includes, without limitation, such offers made in Market Communications.
25. “Opt-In” means the cognitive act of giving consent by an existing consumer to start
availing a particular service or product he has already subscribed earlier (but was not
availing), or to start availing an offer related to that service or
product. “Auto Renewal” means the continuation, through cognitive consent of the
consumer, of the
service/product/offer that
s/he
opted-in
to, across
successive Charging Intervals.
26. “Opt-Out” means the act of giving consent by an existing consumer to stop using a
particular service/product/offer s/he has been availing. “Auto Opt-Out”, however,
means the automatic termination of a service/product/offer for a consumer by the
Service Provider due to lack of consent of the consumer for not to opt-out, or for any
other valid reasons.
27. “Own Product” means any product of telecommunications service, produced and/or
offered by the Service Provider, under the provision of a valid license. Examples:
SMS, MMS, USSD/WAP based browsing/download, IVR/VOBD based service,
voice-call/video-call based talk-time, content download, service subscription,
internet/data volume, etc.
28. “Premium Rate Service (PRS)” means a service that demands a different, usually
higher, tariff structure than is allowed by the Cost-Model.
29. “Promotion” means a set of marketing activities undertaken by the Service
Provider to boost sales of the product or service, and/or to strengthen the value of the
brand. Such activities also include, though not limited to, making Promotional Offers
or sales promotion involving schemes, discounts, freebies, incentives, etc.
30. Push Notification” means a message (usually SMS) or an alert delivered by a
centralized server to an end-device (usually mobile-phone). Pull Notification, on the
other hand, means a message (usually SMS) or an act shown by an end-device
(consumer) to a centralized server.
31. “Quality of Experience (QoE)” means a measure of the overall level of consumer
satisfaction with a vendor. QoE is related to but differs from QoS, which embodies
the notion that hardware and software characteristics can be measured, improved and
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perhaps guaranteed. In contrast, QoE expresses consumer’s satisfaction both
objectively and subjectively. The QoE paradigm can be applied to any consumerrelated business or service (intelligence, prediction, customer-care etc.).
32. “Quality of Service (QoS)” means the idea that transmission rates, error rates,
efficiency, performance monitoring and other characteristics of a telecommunication
service can be measured, improved, and standardized over the network and, to some
extent, guaranteed in advance.
33. “Registration” means the Service Provider’s endorsement or enlistment of a
new consumer’s consent given in favour of being enlisted as an end-user of a
particular service(s).
34. “Regular Service” means a service, or any relevant offer thereof, which is fully
compliant to the existing Regulatory Frameworks and approvals, and hence, does not
require any further approval before commencing its commercial operation. Regular
Service differs from Promotional Offer in that the former is considerably durable,
while the latter is momentary. If a Promotional Offer, however, remains valid for
more than the period specified by the Regulatory Frameworks, it is referred to as a
“Converted Regular Service” and treated like a Regular Service.
35. “Regulatory Framework” means the spirit, objectives, and documentation,
considered as a whole, issued by the Commission under the relevant laws and
regulations to facilitate and/or regulate all the stakeholder(s) of the
telecommunication and ICT industry. Regulatory Framework refers (but not limited)
to the guidelines, directives, instructions, approvals, permits, no objection certificates,
technical feasibility certificates, permissions to use the telecommunication system for
business purpose recommendations, operational procedures, letters, e-mails, minutes
of meeting etc. issued from time to time.
36. “Service” means the “Telecommunication Service” as defined by the Act.
37. “Service Provider (SP)” means the Licensee responsible to provide a particular
service, and has the right to charge for it, to the Consumer. Therefore, the Service
Provider shall become, legally and technically, liable to all sorts of compliance,
service delivery and charging (e.g. consumer registration, service subscription,
customer care, QoS, QoE, GoS, content-liability, IPR, service delivery, charging,
promotional activity, Market Communications, promotional rewards etc.) for that
particular service as well as its relevant tariff, promotional activity, Market
Communications and etc.
38. “Specialized User Group (SUG)” means user groups consisting CUG, F&F, OnPABX, On-IPTSP, etc., who usually indulge in traffic-intensive usage amongst
themselves and enjoy discounted/less tariff.
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39. “Standardization” means the setting of values of QoS, QoE and GoS, which shall be
strictly ensured by the Service provider according to the national and international
standardization agencies (ITU, IETF, IEEE, ETSI, ISO, FCC, BTRC etc.).
40. “Static Charging”, in contrast with Dynamic Charging, means a charging system
based on pre-determined (usually guided by statistical trends of network
utilization) and fixed (‘static’, not ‘dynamic’) rate of tariff. Such tariff may, however,
be different for different conditions or time-windows (e.g. daily: peak/offpeak; weekly: week-day/week-end; yearly: business-day/festival-day etc.).
41. “Subscription” means the consent of a consumer of availing any particular service(s)
or relevant offer(s) thereof. Usually, a subscription begins with the consumer’s
Opting-In to the service(s) or offer(s) and remains valid until either Opting-Out or
termination of the service(s) or offer(s).
42. “Subscription Based Service” means the service(s), or relevant offer(s) thereof,
availing which requires prior subscription by the consumer.
43. “Tariff” means the tariff defined by the Act.
44. “Telephony Service” means the peer to peer voice-communication based service
provided by valid licensed entities to the end-user/consumer. ANSPs are authorized to
provide telephony-service.
45. “Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)” means a protocol used by
GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the SP’s and/or NP’s and/or VASP’s
and/or ANSP’s system
46. “Value Added Service (VAS)” in telecommunication service term means the noncore services or, in short, all services beyond the standard ones such as voice-call,
human to human SMS and internet.
47. “Video Out-Bound Dialing (VOBD)” VOBD means a platform required to provide
Video-IVR/Video-Conference based service.
48. “Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)” WAP means a specification for a set of
communication protocols to standardize the way that wireless devices, such as
cellular telephones and radio transceivers, can be used for internet-access including email, web-browsing, content-download, news-groups and instant messaging.
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Directives on Service and Tariff
III.
SYSTEMS AND SERVICES
1. Continuity of Services and Offers
A service (regular, converted regular, new, value-added, premium-rate, etc.) or
product, once offered, other than as promotional offer, shall be made available for
minimum 365 (three hundred sixty five) consecutive days. Consumers, however, shall
retain the right to Opt-Out as and when desired.
2. Approval for Services and Offers
For each of the services, and relevant offers thereof, which is approved on or before
the issuance of this Directives, the respective Service Provider shall either submit to
the Commission a certificate of compliance to the Directives, or re-design the
service/product/offer for compliance and then obtain approval of the Commission
within 90 (ninety) days from the date this Directives is issued. Failure to do either
shall be treated as unwillingness of the Service Provider to continue the service/offer;
and hence, the service/offer shall then be treated as unapproved.
3. Intimation for Services and Offers
a. Launching, re-launching, terminating, withholding or modifying any approved
service/offer within the approved tariff circuit shall require prior intimation to the
Commission.
b. Intimation, as mentioned above, in the form of both letter and e-mail shall reach
the Commission prior to the circulation/publication/broadcast of the
relevant Market Communications but at least 3 (three) working days prior to
the actual launching, re-launching, terminating, withholding or modifying that
offer.
c. Intimation of an offer shall contain unambiguous and comprehensive
description ofthe offer, without exaggeration or
omission of any critical
information that may affect cost and benefit of the offer at the consumer’s
end, documents (SLA/any form of service-contract/MoU/business-document etc.)
justifying approval of the relevant service(s) and tariffs, and the compliance of the
tariff justified through calculation of the implied Effective Rate where applicable.
d. Intimation to the Commission about an offer shall be unmistakably identifiable
with its relevant Market Communications.
4. Validity and Usability of Services
The amount of recharge
of a service as under:
shall govern the minimum validity
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Directives on Service and Tariff
Minimum Validity and Usability of Service
Amount of Recharge
10 Days
15 Days
30 Days
45 Days
100 Days
180 Days
360 Days
BDT 10 – BDT 30
BDT 31 – BDT 50
BDT 51 – BDT 150
BDT 151 – BDT 300
BDT 301 – BDT 500
BDT 501 – BDT 999
BDT 1,000 and above
5. De-Activation, Re-Activation, Re-Selling of a MSISDN Connection
a. A subscribed Mobile Station International Consumer Directory Number
(MSISDN) based connection may be automatically de-activated if it is not
used for 90 consecutive days. The consumer can then re-activate it by
recharging the minimum admissible amount anytime within 365 consecutively
unused days. If not, then the consumer can re-activate this connection (with
same number plan) by paying a re-activation fee of not more than BDT 100
(one hundred) within 730 consecutively unused days.
b. A subscribed MSISDN based connection (including the number plan) shall
continue to remain the right of its registered consumer up to 730 consecutively
unused days, even if it is de-activated. Thereafter, not before, the Service
Provider that originally owned the number plan is allowed to reuse (resell/rent/re-register) this connection provided it is not placed under any
particular restriction either by the Commission or any other competent
authority.
c. The Service Provider shall maintain, in its own website, Customer Care
Centers,
and
in
the
website
of
the
Commission, list(s)
of MSISDN based connections that are to be reused. In addition, the Service
Provider
shall preserve all
information/documentation
relevant
to the registration and usage of all such connections.
d. To reuse a MSISDN based connection, the Service Provider shall publish
three months of prior notice (after ‘730 consecutively unused days’) in
minimum 3 (three) renowned national newspapers (Bangla/English) along
with the information that the list of those MSISDN is available in its own
website, Customer Care Centers, and in the website of the Commission.
e. A MSISDN based connection can be resold only at regular price.
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Directives on Service and Tariff
6. Number-Plan of a Service
a. A particular service shall run on authorized (allocated by the Commission)
number-plan (long-code, port, short-code, etc.) only. Using any other existing
(applicable) number-plan shall require prior approval from the Commission.
b. For any given service, same number-plan must be used for both optin/registration and opt-out/de-registration.
7. Acquiring Content
The Service Provider shall acquire all the ‘content(s)’ used for that service only from
the content-provider (CP).
8. Confidentiality
Disclosure of consumer’s personal information (SAF data, billing/payment history
etc.), usage-record (CDR, Log, Time-Stamp, and Cloud-Data etc.), geographiclocation and/or combination of any of the above to any entity other than the entities
designated by the law of the land is strictly prohibited.
9. Migration amongst Services/Offers
a. Migration procedure amongst all kinds of services/offers (within any pre-paid
or, any post-paid services) shall be published in the Service Provider’s website
for convenience of consumers. Moreover, the Service Provider shall ensure
the utmost circulation of the aforementioned migration procedure through all
kinds of Market Communications as well as by placing a USSD menu in the
connection (SIM, for GSM connections only). However, USSD menu should
be regularly updated for consumer(s).
b. In case of forced migration due to termination of service or any
other valid reason the Service Provider shall circulate all relevant information
to the consumer including tariff through SMS and other forms of
market communication techniques. In addition the Service Provider shall
initiate a force-migration program for the existing consumers of that service
(with minimum of 3 push-notification: first-one 120 hours prior to, secondone 48 hours prior to and the third-one 12 hours prior to the actual forcemigration). It is, however, recommended that the Service Provider shall place
the force-migrated consumers in a more convenient service.
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Directives on Service and Tariff
10. Opt-In to and Opt-Out from a Service/Offer
a. A consumer shall be opted-in to a service/offer only by his/her cognitive consent
and NEVER automatically. This shall apply also in case of re-opting-in to a
service from which the consumer has already opted-out either automatically or by
choice.
b. For auto-renewal of a subscription based on Charging Interval, the Service
Provider shall make provision to obtain the choice, apart from the choice of
opting-in, of the consumer. Until the consumer consents in favour, there shall be
no auto-renewal of the subscription from one Charging Interval to the next, and if
no consent is obtained at all, auto opt-out shall be applied.
c. In case of an offer comprising VAS, either opt-out or auto renewal as provided
for in sub-clause 10(a) and (b) shall be applied not later than 30 days from opt-in
or previous auto renewal to that offer.
11. Standardized Command
Before commercially launching a service, the Service Provider shall introduce
standardized command instructions for all sorts of registration, subscription, optin, opt-out, help, status check, cancellation of all opted-in services, balance inquiry,
bill
inquiry,
KAM’s
contact-information, etc., and
the
modality
of
commercial communication
mentioned
in
the
various
regulatory frameworks. Following command instructions (not case-sensitive) are
standardized for all concerned:
#
Key-Word
1
START
2
STOP
3
HELP
4
VIEW
5
INFO
6
BILL
Description and Purpose
A subscription for starting the relevant services. The confirmation SMS
should contain procedure to get Help and all the key-words for that
service.
To cancel the relevant service
Support for consumer of the service (e.g. customer care center, e-care
website address, service related any sorts of enquiry, mode of change of
settings etc).
Overview of all active subscriptions to a particular number-plan / shortcode
Information of all the active services, sub-divided into broad category of
service (i.e. regular / converted regular / new / premium-rate /
promotional)
Bill and/or Payment information including the option of Payment
Summary
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7
8
9
10
BALANCE Balance Enquiry
The end consumer receives information from the Service Owner in the
form of a description of using the service and the indication of how to
INDEX
use the service and the indication of where or how a detailed service
description and tariff-plan may be obtained (e.g. from the web-portal, by
email, on request etc.)
Contact Information of the Key Account Manager for the subscribed
KAM
service(s)
To cancel all the subscribed services other than the originally built-in
CANCEL
default service(s).
12. Notification of Usage
After each outgoing voice or video call made by a pre-paid consumer, s/he shall be
notified, through USSD or SMS, about talk-time used and charge deducted for that
call, and the credit balance remaining thereafter. In case of a data-volume based
service the consumer shall be notified about the usage through USSD each time s/he
disables the data connectivity.
13. Response to Incorrect Requests
Where an incorrect request is made by SMS/USSD, the end-user/consumer shall be
helped with the necessary information and/or correct form of request via SMS/USSD
and thereby could be charged with the tariff of that particular service’s on-net SMS
for SUG.
14. Extra-Usage Tariff
If the usage of a regularly subscribed data-volume based internet service exceeds the
admissible limit before expiration of a given Charging Interval, the consumer shall be
notified of that fact along with the tariff applicable for onward usage of extra volume.
15. Validity of Data-Volume
In case a consumer subscribes the same offer of a data-volume based internet service
for more than one Charging Intervals:
a. If the consumer consumes less volume of data than is admissible in one Charging
Interval, the unconsumed amount of data-volume shall be carried forward and
added to the admissible data-volume of the next Charging Interval opted-in by the
consumer, wherein the carried forward data shall be consumed first.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
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Directives on Service and Tariff
b. The amount of data-volume carried-forward from one Charging Interval shall
remain valid for consumption within next 06 (six) consecutive Charging
Intervals.
16. Upgrading Volume-Limit or Charging Interval
In case of a service where multiple volume-limits or Charging Intervals of data usage
are available for subscription:
a. The Service
Provider shall
create
provisions
so
that
any consumer can upgrade his/her respective volume-limits via customer care
center, SMS, USSD, email and/or personal communication with KAM etc.
b. The request of upgrading the volume-limit shall be handled instantly. In such
case, however, the consumer shall be made aware of the new tariff and the
service-modality.
c. The Service Provider shall also make provisions so that the consumer(s) can
check the consumption of data-volume limit through USSD, web-portal, SMS
and/or personal communication with KAM.
17. Submission of Business Report/Information
The Service Provider shall submit the business report and/or information
regarding any service/offer (regular, converted regular, new, value-added, premiumrate, promotional, etc.) and Market Communications whenever asked by the
Commission. Such report/information may include, inter alia, the followings:
a. Service-modality, tariff-structure,
the consumers;
terms
and
conditions,
etc.
implied
to
b. Quarterly Business Statistics regarding sales, all forms of promotional activity
and market promotion, consumer, gross revenue, government revenue, profit-loss
calculation, fee and charges, feedback from consumers, customer-care, customercomplaint, contribution to the society and economy, public awareness program,
etc.
c. The Service Provider shall share information about its Annual Gross Revenue (as
Revenue Share; and, as Social Obligation Fund) with the Commission (as per the
applicable license) maintaining separate account for each and every service and
keep that information up to 3 years.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
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15
Directives on Service and Tariff
IV.
TARIFF AND CHARGING
1. Tariff Structure and Cost Model
All the tariff structures, irrespective of service modality, promotional activity, network
type, (on-net, off-net, international, roaming, etc.), charging mechanism
(static/dynamic charging, Charging Interval), SUG, etc., shall comply with the cost
model provided by the Commission from time to time. Tariff of any service, or relevant
offer thereof, which lies beyond the approved tariff structure shall require prior approval
of the Commission. (The existing “Cost Model” is enclosed herewith this Directives).
2. Maximum Tariff
Unless any tariff is specifically approved either as a maximum/minimum/fixed tariff or as
a range of tariffs, it shall be considered as the ‘maximum tariff’.
3. VAT
VAT, where applicable, shall be added ‘in addition’ to the tariff/price/fee/charge given or
approved by the Commission.
4. Revenue Sharing with the Government
The Service Provider shall share its Annual Gross Revenue (as Revenue Share; and, as
Social Obligation Fund) with the Government (the Commission) as per the
license applicable, maintaining separate account for every service.
5. Revenue Sharing for Promotional Offers
If the whole or part of an offer entails any service/product (airtime, talk-time, etc.,
whether on-net or off-net) as freebies or at a rate lower than the lowest rate approved
through the relevant tariff structure or cost model, the revenue share and VAT for that
free or discounted service/product actually consumed shall be calculated considering the
approved lowest rate for that service/product (Taka 0.25 per minute of talk-time, for
example).
6. Homogeneity of Tariff and Charging Mechanism
For any given service (regular, converted regular, new, value-added, premium-rate, etc.)
the tariff and charging mechanism shall be homogeneous throughout the country;
discrimination based on geographic location is strictly forbidden.
7. Special Arrangements
The Commission shall make rational arrangement(s) such as Differential Baseline Tariff
to the best of the interest of the industry, on case to case basis, governed by specific
regulatory frameworks issued by the Commission time to time. Such arrangement(s) shall
remain valid for all applicable entities within the stipulated condition(s).
8. Billing Period
The Billing Period for any service/product shall not exceed one month.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
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Directives on Service and Tariff
9. Push-Notification for Charging
In case of charging for any data-volume based service, the Service Provider shall pushnotify the consumer by:
a. At least 1 (one) push-notification at the time of actual charging for an unlimited
data-volume or for a volume of 100 MB and below.
b. At least 2 (two) push-notifications in case of a data-volume between 100MB-500
MB: one after consumption of 50 percent of the data-volume being charged for,
and the other at the time of actual charging.
c. At least 3 (three) push-notifications in case of a limited data-volume above
500MB: one after consumption of 50 percent and another after 80 percent of the
data-volume being charged for, and the other at the time of actual charging.
10. Charging Intervals and Charging Units
The reference Charging Intervals and Charging Units of some services (whether regular,
converted regular, value-added, new, or premium-rate) are as under:
Type ofService Provider
Charging Interval(maximum)
Cellular Mobile Phone Operator (CMPO)
10 (ten) Seconds
Public Switched Telephone Network
10 (ten) Seconds
(PSTN)
Internet
Protocol
TelephonyService
10 (ten) Seconds
Provider(IPTSP)
Charging Unit
1 (one) Second
1 (one) Second
1 (one) Second
11. Migration Charge
No migration charge, whatsoever, shall be applied if an existing consumer desires to
migrate to another service (e.g. within any pre-paid or, any post-paid service-pack).
12. Multiple Charging
For the same service, other than in case of an internet based one, the Service Provider
shall not charge the consumer more than once in any form (for example, charge for line
rent except for postpaid connection, connection to the platform, setup or initiation,
installation, etc. or any other implied fee/charge). In case of internet service, however,
charge applicable to IPR may be allowed in addition to the charge for the data browsing.
13. Static Charging
For static charging:
a. The tariff of a service/product in any given offer shall be homogeneous, i.e. same
for every charging unit, within a stipulated time-slot of the day.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
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Directives on Service and Tariff
b. The length of each time-slot (consisting such homogeneous tariff) shall be of at
least 4 (four) consecutive hours.
c. The number of time-slots (each of which consists of homogeneous tariff) shall not
exceed 4 (four) in one whole day (24 hours).
d. `The period between 0000 and 0600 hours shall form part of one time-slot of at
least 10 (ten) consecutive hours.
14. Dynamic Charging
a. Methods such as SMS, IVR, and USSD shall be used for registration/opt-in and
de-registration/opt-out Free of Charge (FoC). Moreover, instant opt-in and instant
opt-out shall be introduced in accordance with Dynamic Pricing.
b. Approved service and tariff shall be offered, based on BTS Utilization of
operator’s lone/single network-region (area/region under each BTS). The
information regarding the tariffs and BTS utilization shall be preserved by the
operators.
c. When a service is charged under the dynamic charging method, the tariff
applicable for a particular consumer shall not change until that current-usage
ends, even if due to the change in network-utilization the respective tariff has
been changed as a consequence for that location (BTS coverage) for all other
available consumer(s).
d. The applicable tariff [calculated and updated from last 24 (twenty four)
hour’s] should be displayed through cell-broadcast channel along with percentage
(%) of discounted-tariff the consumer is going to enjoy (against the maximum
applicable tariff as per the cost-model and this Directives).
e. The dynamic charging method cannot be used to offer special tariff for any
specific geographical area/region.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
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Directives on Service and Tariff
V.
PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITY
1. Promotional Offers
a. Promotional offers shall conform to the Laws of the Land, and shall be made only
by the Service Provider and only with respect to the services that have valid
approval of the Commission.
b. The freebies/bonus/discount/gift/reward/prize associated with any promotional
offer shall be given either to all who opt-in to that offer, or to all who obtain/attain
a clearly articulated and transparently measurable given benchmark (such as an
amount of recharge, usage, point, etc.) entirely by an act of choice, and neither by
chance (such as lottery) nor by comparison with other consumers (such as ‘best’,
‘highest’, ‘first’, etc.), with the exception provided for in Sub-Clause 1(c).
c. In case of an offer involving any product other than Own Product as incentive
(gift/reward/prize) but limited in number, Sub-Clause 1(b) shall equally apply
except for that the product(s) other than the Own Product(s) as incentive(s) may
be given on ‘first-arrive” basis. In such case, however, the number of total
gifts/rewards/prizes to be given and the validity of that offer shall be clearly and
emphatically mentioned in all relevant Market Communications. In addition,
the Service Provider shall, in the same platform(s) through which the consumers
are to opt-in to that offer, make real-time information available about the number
of consumers already opted-in.
d. Any promotional offer shall be reasonably consumable. The freebies (talk-time,
SMS, MMS, data-volume etc.) offered, for example, shall be reasonably
consumable by consumers within the time stipulated, if any.
e. The Effective Rate of tariff of a service/product, considering all promotional
offers involving Own Product (in the form of discount, bonus, gift, reward, prize,
etc.) shall always conform to the approved tariff circuit/cost model. It
is encouraged that such promotional offer shall be applicable for both on-net and
off-net usage.
f. In case of conveying offer(s) of a third party to own consumers, the Service
Provider shall conspicuously mention the sponsorship of the third party concerned
and ensure that the offer(s) does not appear to be made by the Service Provider.
g. In designing a product, offer, or the Market Communications thereof, the Service
Provider shall avoid using such addictive element that is likely to lure
the consumers to indulge in irrational/unnecessary heavy usage or recharge; or
such pernicious element that is likely to foster moral or behavioral distortion
amongst any faction of the society.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
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Directives on Service and Tariff
2. Validity and Re-Launching of Promotional Offers
a. Any promotional offer shall remain valid for minimum 3 (three) and maximum 60
(sixty) consecutive days. It can, however, be extended up to another 15 (fifteen)
days with the Commission’s approval obtained before expiration of its validity.
b. A daylong promotional offer shall be allowed only on internationally or nationally
recognized special days (such as 21 February); but every consumer who opts-in to
any daylong offer shall be allowed to avail the entire offer for at least 24 hours
from the moment s/he actually opts-in to it.
c. Any product/service, even if launched as promotional or irregular one, that
continues to remain valid for more than 60 (sixty) consecutive days shall,
therefore, be considered as a “converted regular service” and continued to be
offered accordingly.
d. A promotional offer can be re-launched after (not before) the completion of 90
(ninety) consecutive days from the date of its termination. In case of re-launching
the offer before the date of its termination, respective Service Provider shall take
prior permission from the Commission.
VI.
MARKET COMMUNICATIONS
1. Market Communications for Various Services and Offers
a. Any forms of Market Communications shall contain unambiguous and
comprehensive
description of relevant offer(s), without exaggeration or
omission of any critical information that may affect cost and benefit of the
offer at the consumer’s end.
b. Critical information in a Market Communication shall always conform to that
approved by or intimated to the Commission.
c. The conditions of the offer, along with the phrases like “conditions apply”, shall
be emphasized, clear, conspicuous, and easily accessible.
d. In case the whole or part of a Market Communication is limited by time or space
(on radio, TV, front/cover page, etc.), the main/prime Communication shall
clearly and emphatically indicate the location where relevant details of the offer
are made available.
2. Information and Procedures
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
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Directives on Service and Tariff
a. For
convenience
of
the
consumers,
the Service
Provider shall
include information about and procedure of service registration, subscription, optin, opt-out, status inquiry, complaints, customer care, etc. in relevant Market
Communications.
b. If the process of activation of/opting-in to a service/offer is mentioned in
any Market Communications other than in radio or television, the process
of deactivation of/opting-out from the same shall also be included therein with
equal emphasis.
c. The Service Provider in their web-site shall maintain an updated list of, along
with critical information about, all available services and products, including this
very service.
3. Push-Notification
Push-Notifications (particularly those related to promotional activities) in the form of
SMS to international roaming consumers, which is likely to incur cost to
the consumer, shall NOT be sent to the consumer without his/her consent, and
hence, shall be turned off by default. The roaming agreement document for the consumer
shall include the option to opt-in when specifically requested. However, the
internet settings should be communicated through SMS to the roaming consumers (if
roaming agreement permits).
4. IVR/Call-Agent-Based Market Communications
No voice-based market communication shall be played before the default-tone / RBT /
RRBT of the concerned consumer commences; this shall be equally applicable for missed
call alert, switched-off or out-of-network devices.
5. Ethical Conformity of Market Communications
Market Communications in any form, as well as other promotional activities, shall
conform to the socio-cultural values, norms, practices, beliefs and heritage of
Bangladesh.
By the order of Chairman
(Lt Col Mohammad Zulfikar, psc)
Director
Systems & Services Division
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
www.btrc.gov.bd
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