The government is planning to provide landline connection and re-connection of the state-run operator Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) free of cost to boost its users in the country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Information and Communication Technology Affairs Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy came up with the announcement at a meeting at the Post and Telecommunication ministry today.

But, Joy, also elder son of the prime minister, did not make it clear from when the decision will come into effect.

At present, the connection and re-connection fees of the BTCL are Tk 1,000 in Dhaka, Tk 500 in Chattogram and Tk 300 in rest city of the country.

Currently, less than 6 lakh active landline connections are being used in the country against the total capacity of more than 13 lakh, according to the BTCL.

Mir Mohammad Morshed, director of the public relations department of the BTCL, said that they would implement the decision immediately to make the efforts a success.  

In the meeting, Joy inaugurated a new mobile application that will be used to pay the bill of the landline phone and lodge complain in this regard.

He also inaugurated one-minute digital savings account service opening Nagad, a digital financial service provided by Bangladesh Post Office, with another mobile app “Porichoy” for getting the account service in a minute.

Earlier, to open the mobile account, it took minimum five days for verifying the National Identity Card (NID) of a particular person.

Telecom Minister Mostafa Jabbar presided over the meeting where telecom secretary Ashok Kumar Biswas and senior officials of different state-run companies were also present.