Govt seeks Malaysian investment for Teletalk

The government sought investment for Teletalk from the Malaysian government as part of its efforts to turn the state-run mobile operator into a vibrant company, State Minister for Telecom Tarana Halim said yesterday.

The Malaysian government showed interest to invest in Bangladesh's telecom sector, Tarana said at a press conference at her office in Dhaka. Tarana met her Mal-aysian counterpart Salleh Said Keruak during a recent visit.

"They want to look into some issues before investing in Bangladesh's telecom sector," she said.

Keruak, the communication and multimedia minister of Malaysia, also directed his office to take initiatives to expedite the investment process. Tarana also visited Malaysia's state-owned telecom operator Celcom, which has now become the number two profitable operator in the country after incurring losses since 2006.

Teletalk and Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd will follow the model of Celcom in Bangladesh, she said.

"We have already made several changes to Teletalk and have seen positive responses. If we can get some fresh investment, Teletalk will be able to compete with other local operators."

Teletalk is moving towards a major brand overhaul by February with a new logo, website, packages and a modern complaints system, she said.

"Teletalk's network coverage will improve if we can increase the number of base stations. We can also get more subscribers then," said Tarana.

"Celcom also showed us how the services of Teletalk can be modernised."

Teletalk began its journey as the country's fifth operator in March 2005 with a capital of Tk 643 crore. It initially had the capacity to serve only 40 lakh users. The number has now been raised to one crore.