Dhaka – The government has initiated the process to launch the 4G service in the country by this year to ensure the fastest data service for mobile phone subscribers.
To this end, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is likely to provide licences for service to the country’s mobile phone operators within one week.
“The mobile phone companies will be provided with the 4G licences in a week. Work is on to finalise a policy which will fix fees for the licences,” BTRC Chairman Dr Shahjahan Mahmood told the news agency.
He said the mobile phone operators will buy spectrum after receiving the licences for the service. “The 4G service will be introduced by this year and we’ll reach service to villages as per the directives of the Prime Minister.”
The telecom regulator has 15 Megahertz of unsold spectrum in the 2100 band and 10.6 Megahertz in the 1800 band and some spectrum in 900 band.
The BTRC chief said the government had taken an initiative to launch the 4G service in the country by 2016 after neighbouring India and Nepal embraced the technology. “But, it hadn’t been possible to materialise the move.”
Now, the initiative came after Prime Minister’s ICT adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy at a meeting with State Minister for Posts and Communications Tarana Halim and the BTRC Chairman directed for introducing the 4G service in the country as soon as possible, said sources at the Posts and Telecommunications Division.
He asked the BTRC to allow technological neutrality to enhance the overall quality of services.
Following the directives, the division asked all mobile operators to take preparations for launching the 4G service. It will disclose details about the 4G service introduction soon, the sources said.
State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim told the news agency that her division has taken the initiative to launch the 4G service in the country soon and asked the BTRC to issue licences to the mobile operators by March.
“People are interested to avail themselves of the 4G service. We don’t want to lag behind in the field of technology. So, we’ve initiated the process to launch the service. We’ll be able to launch the 4G service by this year (2017) on completion of all necessary procedures,” she said.
BTRC sources said the number of mobile subscribers in the country were 12.82 crore till January last. Of them, 6.63 crore are mobile internet users with 3.29 crore having the 3G service.
The BTRC said the 3G network is available with five mobile phone operators – Grameenphone, Robi, Banglalink, Airtel and Teletalk.
Ariful Haque, a resident of the district town of Kishoreganj who uses Grameenphone data pack, told UNB that it is hard to enjoy the 3G service all the time as sometimes 2G network is available instead of 3G.
Ruhul Amin, who lives in the capital, echoed Ariful saying his device gets 2G coverage instead of 3G network most of the time.
Grameenphone is currently using 32 Megahertz spectrum – 7.8 Megahertz in the 900 band, 14.632 Megahertz in the 1800 band and 10 32 Megahertz in the 2100 band while Banglalink 20 Megahertz – 5 Megahertz in the 900 band, 10 Megahertz in the 1800 band and 5 Megahertz in the 2100 band and Teletalk has 25.20 Megahertz – 5.2 Megahertz in the 900 band, 10 Megahertz in the 1800 band and 10 Megahertz in the 2100 band.
Mobile phone companies use 2100 band for 3G service and 900 and 1800 bands for the 2G service.
The 4G service is supposed to be provided using spectrum of the 700 band. However, it will be possible to provide any service with any of the bands if the technological neutrality is allowed. -UNB
