In front of the National Press Club on Tuesday, consumer rights activists and political personalities held a human chain, demanding the allocation of 700MHz spectrum for Teletalk and the cessation of technical discrimination in the telecom sector.
The speakers said that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has called for an auction of 25MHz in the 700MHz band on 14 January 2026, but no allocation has been kept for Teletalk as before.
Although there is a plan to sell the remaining 20MHz later based on demand, excluding the state-owned operator will make fair competition in the market difficult and put Teletalk’s future at risk. This information was stated in a press release.
Ruhin Hossain Prince, former General Secretary of the Communist Party, said that Teletalk is not being given spectrum as part of a consistent effort to weaken state-owned institutions.
He said, “State-owned institutions have been destroyed, and now Teletalk is being pushed towards closure. Allocation in the 700MHz band for Teletalk must be ensured.”
Khaled Abu Naser, former director of the Bangladesh Competition Commission, said that one private operator is making almost 90% profit and another about 8%, but the remaining operators, including Teletalk, are incurring losses.
“If Teletalk is kept in such a state, competition will be lost from the market,” he added.
President of the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Subscribers Association, Mohiuddin Ahmed, said that the 700MHz band is extremely important for Teletalk because it is capable of providing advanced coverage in rural and remote areas.
“A foreign-owned operator recently advised in an open meeting not to allocate any bandwidth to Teletalk,” he alleged.
In his opinion, if Teletalk does not get this band, subscriber suffering will increase on its weak network, foreign operators will gain an unusual market advantage, and essential government services may also be disrupted.
He further said that if more towers need to be installed, Teletalk’s costs will increase, which will affect both service quality and price.
The speakers said that from 1995 to 2005, although foreign operators provided services in an open market, subscribers had to suffer problems like high call charges, incoming call fees, and expiry of unused balances. To address these crises, Teletalk was established with the promise of providing citizen-friendly, low-cost services.
They said that with lower call charges, Teletalk forced foreign operators to reduce their prices as well, which was Teletalk’s first major contribution. The speakers informed that while foreign operators have invested over Tk40,000 crore, Teletalk has been providing services with limited resources of only Tk6,000 crore.
During the human chain, Teletalk’s important contributions, such as assisting in online admissions, accepting job applications, and paying utility bills, were highlighted, and demands were made to strengthen the state-owned institution.
