Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission will receive application for licensing a potential new-generation business in call centre from the first week of April, reports UNB.

Besides, the Commission proposed to facilitate the entrepreneurs of the potential new industry with tax holiday for three years in Dhaka and Chittagong and five years in the rest of the country starting from the licensing.

Moreover, the BTRC proposed only 0.5 percent revenue sharing after the termination of holiday period. The proposals came at the ''Public Hearing on Call Centre Licensing'' organised by the Commission at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre Wednesday morning.

As a follow-up to Public Consultation on the Proposed Licensing Guidelines for Call Centre, BTRC invited the general public and call-center enthusiasts to attend the public hearing where the proposed Licensing Guidelines, and terms and conditions were discussed openly. Over 2,000 stakeholders took part in the hearing.

Presided over by BTRC chairman Maj Gen (retd) Manjurul Alam, the programme was also addressed by BTRC Commissioner JM Munir Ahmed and Aliwardi Khandakar, director (legal and licensing) AKH Shahiduzzaman and senior consultant Abdullah A Ferdous. "There is no category for getting the call-centre license.

Any good citizen having trade license can apply for the license," BTRC chairman Alam told journalists at the break of the daylong public hearing. BTRC would provide the license as long as there would be the market demand, he said, adding that there is no condition for getting the license at this moment.

Anyone could get the license at a cost of Tk 5,000 for five years, which was proposed Tk 50,000 earlier, and no renewal fee for the license. "The advertisement for applying for the license will be circulated on the BTRC website from the first week of April and also go on television and radio.

Meanwhile, we''ll revise the proposed licensing guidelines for call centre based on the suggestions of the public hearing," Alam said. Licensing is a continuous process and BTRC would not stop it as revolution could be brought through establishing the call-centre industry properly, he said.

"The market size of the industry was 382.5 billion dollars in 2004, while it would be 641.2 billion in 2009… If we can attract only one percent, that is 6 billion dollars, then it would be even more than our current foreign-currency reserve," the BTRC chairman said.

As the BTRC is proposing for the entrepreneurs to use IPLC (International Private Leased Circuit) for operating the call centres initially, the participants of the public hearing found it much expensive and asked the BTRC to look into the matter. Responding to the remarks, chairman Alam said the BTTB has discounted 25 percent bandwidth charge for IPLC to facilitate the promising call centre industry.

"If needed, the BTRC will request the BTTB to reduce it more," he said, adding that the BTTB would also be requested to reduce the license fee of VSAT, as the call-centre entrepreneurs would also need it. To facilitate the industry, the BTRC is to take step for establishing a second submarine cable at the end of this month, Alam said, expecting that the submarine cable would start in next one year at the maximum.

Speaking to the journalists, he said the BTRC is planning to arrange a call-centre fair in the country after formally inaugurating the industry on a large scale. "Organisations concerned and clients will be invited to visit the industry here in the fair, like it was done recently in the Philippines," he said.

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