Bangladesh’s Post and Telecommunications Minister Faqir Mahbub Anam has urged mobile operators to address persistent complaints over call drops, weak rural coverage and confusing package validity, while calling for service quality improvements to extend beyond major urban centres.
The remarks came at a network modernisation event hosted by Robi Axiata in Dhaka, where the operator announced the completion of a major upgrade covering more than 4,800 sites across greater Dhaka.
Anam said operators need to do more to explain package terms, compensation arrangements and service conditions to customers, while also investing more evenly across rural and urban areas.
Call drops and package validity remain key consumer complaints
The minister said a large share of customer complaints relate to call drops, rural network performance and mobile package conditions.
He also highlighted a lack of awareness around compensation for dropped calls, saying many customers do not know that charges are returned when a call is disconnected unexpectedly.
Anam urged operators to communicate these rules more clearly and simplify the way package validity and terms are explained.
He said the same concerns had already been raised with all four mobile operators in Bangladesh: Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and state-owned Teletalk.
Government pushes operators to improve rural coverage
Anam also criticised the uneven distribution of mobile coverage between cities and rural areas.
He urged operators not to concentrate investment only in major urban markets and suggested that infrastructure sharing, including tower sharing, could help extend services into underserved regions more efficiently.
His comments underline a recurring challenge in Bangladesh’s telecom market, where operators must balance commercial returns in high-density cities with the cost of improving coverage in lower-density rural areas.
Robi upgrades more than 4,800 sites in greater Dhaka
The comments came as Robi announced the completion of a major network modernisation programme across greater Dhaka.
The operator said it upgraded more than 4,800 sites using GIGA GREEN 4G/5G-ready equipment.
According to Robi, the programme improved data speeds, voice quality and indoor coverage.
The company reported customer experience improvements of up to 125%, a 20% reduction in call drops and a threefold improvement in deep-indoor coverage and connectivity quality across greater Dhaka and Gazipur.
Energy consumption per gigabyte also fell by 20%, according to the operator.
Chattogram upgrade is next
Robi Managing Director and CEO Ziad Shatara said the Dhaka modernisation had strengthened the operator’s network position in the capital and that a similar upgrade in Chattogram would be completed soon.
He also said some locations still require new network sites and called for government and regulatory support to make site acquisition easier.
BTRC chairman Major General (retd) Md Emdad Ul Bari praised Robi’s technology team for upgrading around 5,000 sites in a short period.
Quality of service becomes the main competitive battleground
Rehan Asif Asad, adviser to the prime minister on post, telecommunications and information technology, said quality of service is becoming the main differentiator as Bangladesh’s telecom market matures.
That shift is significant because competition is increasingly moving away from basic subscriber acquisition and toward network quality, customer experience and service reliability.
For operators, this means investments in radio infrastructure, indoor coverage, backhaul and energy efficiency are becoming more closely tied to competitive positioning.
Why this matters
Bangladesh’s telecom market is entering a phase where coverage alone is no longer enough.
Customers increasingly judge operators on consistency, indoor performance, dropped calls, package transparency and the reliability of everyday mobile use.
The government’s intervention also signals that rural coverage and consumer rights are likely to remain central regulatory priorities, particularly as mobile services become more important for payments, government access and digital commerce.
Editor’s note
The most important tension is between urban network modernisation and nationwide service equity.
Robi’s Dhaka upgrade shows that operators can deliver substantial gains in capacity, coverage and energy efficiency when they invest heavily in dense urban areas.
The challenge is extending that same improvement to lower-density markets where the economics are harder. Infrastructure sharing, easier site access and more coordinated regulatory support may therefore become increasingly important if Bangladesh wants better mobile quality to reach users outside its biggest cities.
