- 65,000 complaints have been resolved.
- If more customers knew how to file a complaint, the number would run into the tens of millions: Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers Association president.
- Some complaints cannot be resolved overnight: BTRC chairman.
The list of customer complaints against mobile operators keeps growing longer. Over the past five and a half years, more than 66,000 complaints have been filed with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) against the country’s four mobile operators, covering issues including service quality, internet speed (data speed), value-added services (VAS), and recharge/billing. The largest share of complaints concerns service quality. Robi tops the list by number of complaints, followed by Grameenphone, Teletalk, and Banglalink, in that order.
BTRC Chairman Major General (retd) Emdad Ul Bari said the complaints reaching the commission are essentially second-tier complaints. If a customer has a problem with a service, they must first lodge a complaint with the relevant mobile operator’s customer service center. If the operator fails to resolve the issue, the customer then turns to BTRC.
How many complaints against which operator
According to BTRC data, the commission received a total of 66,705 complaints from January 2021 through June 2026. Of these, BTRC has resolved 65,856. The most complaints were filed against Robi, at 24,874. Of these, 24,839 have been resolved, leaving 35 unresolved.
Grameenphone ranks second by number of complaints. The operator faced 21,526 complaints from January 2021 through June 2026, of which 20,895 have been resolved. 631 complaints remain pending.
Teletalk faced a total of 11,594 complaints over the past five and a half years. Of these, 11,447 have been resolved, with 147 pending. Banglalink faced 8,711 complaints, of which 8,675 have been resolved, with 36 pending.
While Robi tops the list by total number of complaints, Teletalk has the highest complaint rate relative to its customer base. Roughly 0.17 percent of Teletalk’s total customers have filed complaints. The rate is 0.042 percent for Robi, 0.025 percent for Grameenphone, and 0.023 percent for Banglalink.
Service quality draws the most complaints
BTRC says customers complain most about quality of service (QoS). This trend was evident in BTRC’s report for the 2024-25 fiscal year. During that fiscal year, a total of 11,427 complaints were recorded across various categories. Of these, complaints related to service quality were the highest, at 3,529. Complaints about data speed numbered 926; miscellaneous issues, 1,331; VAS, 811; licensing-related issues, 798; recharge/billing, 467; package migration, 647; and data volume, 481. Complaints were also filed on various other matters, including MNP (mobile number portability), calls and SMS, SIM registration and ownership, and tariffs.
The Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers Association says the issues appearing on the complaint list against mobile operators — “service quality,” “data speed,” “data volume,” or matters “related to calls and SMS” — are directly tied to customers’ everyday frustrations. Customers regularly complain about issues such as being unable to get network coverage, calls dropping mid-conversation, slowing internet speeds, package data running out quickly, or money being deducted after an unwanted service is activated.
Mashriq Ahmed, a mobile phone user and resident of Mohammadpur, said: “At home, if I want to talk on my mobile, I have to run from one room to another. In some rooms there’s no network at all. In others, you get a bit. If this is the state of the network even in Dhaka city, the situation in other parts of the country must be even worse.”
What the operators say
Mobile operators claim they take customer complaints seriously. Grameenphone’s Head of Communications, Sharfuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, said: “Our customers are at the center of everything we do. We consider every customer complaint with the utmost seriousness and try to resolve it.”
Sharfuddin Ahmed Chowdhury said that when a tower- or network-related complaint cannot be resolved immediately, the company contacts the customer concerned to explain the necessary information and next steps. Improving customer service quality is an ongoing process, he said, adding that various initiatives and efforts continue to provide the highest-quality service through the network trusted by the largest number of people in the country.
Robi’s Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer, Sahed Alam, said roughly 95 percent of the complaints received from BTRC have already been resolved. Robi places the highest priority on improving customer service and resolving complaints quickly, he said. The company regularly reviews its network and services across areas including service quality, data speed, and VAS to improve the customer experience and take necessary action, he said. Sahed Alam claimed that more than 40 percent of the issues raised against Robi at BTRC are investigative in nature, or mere inquiries.
BTRC, however, tells a different story. BTRC Director (Service) Lieutenant Colonel Md Kamrul Hasan Mamun said that, generally, only customers who fail to get redress from an operator’s customer care center are able to file a complaint with BTRC. If a matter is purely an inquiry, he said, it would not typically reach BTRC at all; it would be resolved at the customer service center itself.
How to file a complaint with BTRC
Customers can file complaints with BTRC through its designated complaint-intake system, including by calling the “100” shortcode, or by submitting complaints via webbox or email. Once a complaint is received, BTRC forwards it to the relevant operator and follows up to ensure the necessary explanation and action are provided.
BTRC Chairman Major General (retd) Emdad Ul Bari said: “Previously, we could resolve roughly 45 to 50 percent of complaints in a month. Last month, we managed to raise that to 69 percent.” However, he said, not all complaints can be resolved overnight. Complaints related to network coverage or infrastructure, in particular, take time to resolve. “There are many complaints,” he said, “that can’t be resolved in months, let alone years. For instance, someone might say they aren’t getting proper coverage in their area. That kind of complaint simply cannot be resolved overnight.”
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers Association believes the number of complaints reaching BTRC against mobile operators does not reflect the true picture of customer grievances. The association’s president, Mohiuddin Ahmed, said a huge number of customers in the country don’t even know how to file a complaint. Because BTRC has no complaint-intake system at the district level, a large share of ordinary customers are unable to file complaints at all. If they were able to complain actively, he said, the number would certainly not be 66,000 — it would run into the tens of millions.
According to Mohiuddin Ahmed, the process for filing complaints needs to be made easier, a district-level complaint-intake system needs to be introduced, and BTRC’s technical capacity to resolve complaints needs to be expanded. He also believes more should be done to publicize the fact that complaints can be filed by calling a single number.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report