'Minimum three days validity for mobile package services'

The telecom regulator has set three days as the minimum term for data and other services offered to mobile phone users.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission gave the directive in an announcement on Sunday.

According to bdnews24.com, the directive is effective from February 1 and will be reviewed after a month, said the BTRC on Sunday.

A user can be charged a maximum of Tk 5 for pay-per-use internet data services, said the latest directive.

If the Tk 5-limit is exceeded, the user will have to subscribe to a data package or bundle. This part of the directive is effective from Sunday.

If a phone user activates auto renewal of data services, leftover volumes must be automatically added to the new package.

In case the auto-renewal feature is not activated, the user can continue using internet with pay-per-use services with Tk 5 as maximum charge, effective also from Sunday.

The BTRC will at a later time announce the maximum number of packages, bundles or offers that an operator can make available to its subscribers, said the announcement

BTRC Acting Chairman Md Jahurul Haque had earlier said mobile phone packages that expire in less than seven days will be stopped from February.

Many users have been complaining that operators are making extra profit by offering internet packages that expire shortly after activation and before subscribers get a chance to finish using the data they paid for.

Of 156.9 mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh, 85.5 million use mobile phone internet, according to BTRC data from December last year.