Leaving behind 3G, the country is going to launch 4G soon as the guidelines have already been finalized by the authorities. But is our ecosystem is ready for launching 4G?According to Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB), the country has only 6 percent 4g enabled smartphones which is a big hurdle to launch 4G in the country. The prices of handsets are so high that the common people cannot afford it.
Talking to The Asian Age, T I M Nurul Kabir, Secretary General and CEO of AMTOB said, "The country has only 30-32 percent smartphone users out of them 6 percent using 4G enabled smartphones that means 68-70 percent people still use the low price feature phones."
"So Where is the infrastructure of 4G in consideration of the situation? How 4G launch will be beneficiary in such ecosystem, he said. "If 4G is launched, the government should create its market first," he added. Kabir said, "The government imposes duty on import of smartphones and prices have gone beyond the capacity of common people. We urge government to withdraw all VAT and taxes of importing smartphones."
"We know the government encourages the local assembled smartphones in the country but it will take too much time to reach customer level after justifying its quality and acceptance," he noted. He further said, "The government also increases duty on 4G machineries leading to the increase of costs for the operators." He also said, "The government has reshuffled the 4g guidelines in consultation with the telecom operators. But it needs to share the finalized issues with the operators once again as the matter is related to top investment."
"Operators want to check out the reflection of net-neutrality and spectrum price demand as they will finalize their decision on 4G auction," he added. On the other hand, mobile importers say the import of smartphones and its use rate has decreased in recent times.So, with this contemporary infrastructure, the importers and mobile phone operators are worried about the launching of 4G.
Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association (BMPIA) said, Import of smartphones import has been increasing in the country over the last few years due to feature phones or bar phones. In the nine months of January to September, all 64 lakh 55 thousand smartphones were imported in legitimate way. At the same time, the amount of total import is 2.74 crore and of them, 23.55 percent of the total handsets are smartphones. There were 26.45 percent of smartphones imported in 2016 at the same time and the total handset import was 33.11 crore.
BMPIA General Secretary of BMPIA Rezwanul Haque said, '70 percent of the people of our country use the feature phones worth Tk 1500 to 2000. It is a big deal for them to compete with high price smartphones. Besides, a customer will only buy a smartphone device if they realize that its price is not beyond his or her capacity.
Moreover, "The government has hiked the duty on smartphones to encourage local manufacturers of handsets; but side by side it is losing a huge amount of revenue for illegal mobile handset import." At present, there is about 32 percent tax on mobile handset import including duty, VAT, advance income tax of importers, etc. He further said, more than 25 percent of mobile handsets come through unofficial channels that helps develop a grey market in the country.
-Fakhruddin Mehedi, AA
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