Online Desk: The telecom regulator BTRC has made a move to bring discipline in the management of Social Obligation Fund (SOF).

To this effect, several steps have been taken including closing multiple accounts at multiple banks in this fund and opening a bank account in one name.

The new account of SOF was opened in Sonali Bank.

Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commis-sion (BTRC) has recently instructed all licensees to deposit the money of this fund in the new account.

The fund size is currently Tk 18 billion. The funds were deposited in Sonali, Agrani and Janata Bank in a number of FDR and saving accounts.

The SOF is a contributory funding system remains in the telecom sector of Bangladesh. The BTRC licensees were required to contribute 1 per cent of their annual audited total revenue to this fund.

The telecommunication entities such as mobile operators, internet service providers etc. contribute to this fund which is then used for different projects related to telecommunication in the country.

The goal of the system is to develop the telecommunication sector, to bring the remotest places of Bangladesh in connection as well as to address the digital divide.

However, BTRC itself couldn’t spend the money from this fund but allowed around Tk 20 billion so far, to use from the funds in seven different projects implemented by Teletalk, Bangladesh Tele-communications Company Limited, Bangladesh Compu-ter Samity, Bangabandhu Satellite and Department of Telecommunication.

Mainly, mobile phone operators have been contributing to this fund since 2011. Until recently, a large number of companies in the telecom sector were excluded from the SOF.

Early this year, BTRC instructed to include around 3,000 licensees in the fund.

Newly included categories are: International Internet Gateway (IIG), Internet Protocol Telephony Service

Provider (IPTSP), International Terrestrial Cable (ITC), Internet Service Provider (National, Divisional and District), Vehicle Tracking Services (VTS) and Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN).

Earlier, Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) Secretary General Nazmul Karim Bhuiyan said the majority of ISPAB members were opposed to contributing to the fund so far.

“We can run activities under corporate social responsibility (CSR) or social obligation by ourselves under the supervision of the regulatory authority BTRC,” he added.

BTRC said that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulation Act, 2001 provides for the creation of a SRF, according to Section 21 (a).

However, many companies were still reluctant to contribute to the SOF fund. They explained their business was awful, the cost of their services would rise, and the global crisis and affordable internet access would be hindered by these extra expenditures.