HTML clipboardStaff Correspondent

The cabinet is likely to discuss a proposal Sunday to turn Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board into a public limited company, the chief adviser's special assistant MA Malek said Saturday.

Malek, who is in charge of the post and telecommunications ministry, said at a BTTB meeting that the proposal on the transformation of BTTB had been sent to the cabinet.

BTTB will be renamed Bangladesh Telecom Company Limited if it is turned into a public limited company. The board of directors of the BTCL would be able to take any decision to ensure services of the company.

"The government won't intervene in it," Malek said. He said the BTTB would cut call charges immediately to compete with the private telephone operators.

The state-owned telephone operator would provide a connection within 24 hours of receiving the charges for connectivity, the CA's special assistant said.

BTTB sent a proposal to the telecoms ministry on its new tariff plan. According to the proposal, subscribers will have to pay Tk 0.20 per minute instead of Tk 1.5 for a unit in the same district. Seven minutes make a unit in peak hours and 10 minutes in off-peak hours. According to the proposal, the same rate will work round the clock.

BTTB proposed to fix the call rate at Tk 0.25 per minute within the same division. Subscribers will have to pay Tk 1.00 per minute on calls to mobile phones or private landline networks.

Subscribers will be able to use the internet through their landline connections and BTTB will not charge any fee for internet connections, he said.

BTTB used to charge Tk 300 for internet connections before. As many as 26,000 high-speed internet connections will be provided by June. Malek stressed campaigning for the BTTB offers as he said the people of the country were not aware of BTTB services.

Telecoms secretary Iqbal Mahmood said legal action would be taken against those who did not pay bills for months. The BTTB would file cases against individuals or companies found to have dodged bills, he added.