The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission or BTRC recently approved the regulations.
Out of the four mobile phone operators in Bangladesh, only Grameenphone currently makes up more than 40 percent of the total market share in terms of subscriber base, according to the BTRC data.
“Everyone can do business once the SMP regulations are implemented. No-one will keep more than 40 percent of the total subscribers. The decision will be taken in the commission’s next meeting,” BTRC Acting Chairman Jahurul Haque said.
He was speaking at a meeting with the members of Telecom Reporters’ Network, Bangladesh (TRNB) at the BTRC office in Dhaka on Wednesday.
After clearing the regulations in November last year, the BTRC has formed a committee to find out, if there is any, SMP in Bangladesh’s telecom sector, BTRC Legal and Licensing Division Director General AKM Shahiduzzaman later told bdnews24.com.
The committee will make a report based on which operator will be brought under the regulations. The decision will be taken after the report is tabled in the commission meeting,” he said.
“The SMP regulations aim to prevent the big operators from crossing the limit. It’s about market competition,” he added.
Mobile phone users of the four companies total 156.9 million now, according to the BTRC. Grameenphone is leading with over 72.7 million users or 45.8 percent of the market.
Robi accounts for 30 percent of the total users, Banglalink makes up 22 percent and government-run Teletalk has 2.5 percent subscribers.
Grameenphone is also ahead in terms of annual revenues. It earned 53 percent of the total market revenues in 2017, Robi 28 percent and Banglalink 18 percent.
