5,000 BTTB lines surrendered in Barisal region in a year
No application for new line
People are surrendering BTTB telephone lines in Barisal division due to deteriorating service and higher call rates compared to mobile phones.
During last one year, about 5,000 BTTB subscribers surrendered their telephone lines while application for new connections was almost zero during the period, according to sources in BTTB regional office here.
Telephone exchanges in six districts of Barisal division had capacities for 37,644 connections in January 2007, which was raised to 38,376 in January this year.
The numbers of running connections was 20,494 in January last year, which decreased to 15,634 in January this year, according to the sources. The fall is about 25 per cent.
The highest number of BTTB telephone connections was about 22,000 in 2004-05 financial year.
Since the declaration of emergency, BTTB receives about 14 applications on an average either for surrender of lines or for changing to only receiving status. The sources however claimed that this is mainly to avoid joint forces' operation against illegal or irregular connections and non-payment of bill.
Average monthly revenue collection in the four districts under the regional BTTB office was about Tk 1.5 core in fiscal 2005-06,which declined to only Tk 75 lakh in fiscal 2006-07, the sources said. The
four districts are Barisal, Jhalakati, Bhola and Pirojpur.
The fall was more in Patuakhali and Barguna, which came down to Tk 30 lakh from Tk 45.
They however said collection of arrear bills increased after emergency. About Tk 5 crore bills are still unrealised from subscribers. About 800 cases have so far been filed against defaulters.
Nasim Ul Alam, a subscriber, said people are losing interest in BTTB phone lines due to deteriorating service and high call rates.
Nikhil Das, another BTTB customer, said, “Why I should pay monthly Tk 80 line rent and high charges while I am getting better service in cheaper rate from cell phone providers?”.
The divisional engineer at Barisal BTTB office, when contacted, said the authorities are thinking to take steps to improve services.
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