Merge Teletalk, BTCL to make profitable entity: Joy

The prime minister's ICT adviser has directed the Posts and Telecommunications Division to take steps to merge the two loss-making state-owned telecom companies -- Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) and Teletalk -- in efforts to make them profitable.

Sajeeb Wazed Joy made the call in a meeting at the secretariat recently, said a senior official of the division.

Joy also stressed the need for the appointment of a management consultant group for Teletalk to recommend how the merger could take place.

State Minister for Telecom Tarana Halim said the adviser asked them to start a process to merge the two companies. "Before going for a full merger, the two can develop some sort of a partnership between them."

"Teletalk has bright opportunities to serve the nation in a modern way. But to do that we need to revamp the company and we have already started working on it," Tarana said.

Teletalk is also suffering from a scarcity of capital and strength, she said.

The state minister said Teletalk and BTCL can be helpful to each other.

Tarana along with a group of officials from Teletalk is scheduled to visit Telecom Malaysia, a state-owned company of Malaysia, on January 16-23.

"We want to learn the best practices from that company and implement those in our country's telecom companies."

The ICT adviser also directed the posts and telecoms division to immediately launch the mobile financial services of Teletalk.

The mobile operator can also take infrastructural help from the postal services to launch the services, senior officials of the telecom division who were present at the meeting quoted Joy as saying.

BTCL has been a losing concern for the last couple of years. The revenue of the country's major telecom infrastructure service provider was Tk 1,075.06 crore in 2013-14, and Tk 1,056 crore in the previous year.

The revenue of Teletalk, which has never been a profitable company for the government, reached Tk 969 crore in 2014-15, up from Tk 753.69 crore in 2013-14. It incurred losses worth Tk 20.86 crore in 2013-14.

BTCL can immediately launch wireless broadband services and the two state entities can help each other in this regard, said Tarana. The ICT adviser also suggested that the two companies can take projects in coordination with each other.

Joy emphasised improving Teletalk's overall quality of services. The state firm can also take help from other private operators by signing agreements with them, he said.

Teletalk currently has 3,750 base stations, of which only 1,562 are 3G sites. It has covered 476 upazilas with 2G technology, but their 3G coverage is available in only 91 upazilas.

Teletalk is also working to set up 1,000 new base stations across the country, company officials said.

BTCL has greater service coverage up to the union parishad levels, covering 481 upazilas out of 486.

The landphone operator has more than 5,000 kilometres of optical fibre network connectivity, covering 126 upazilas and 108 union parishads, according to the company profile.

Teletalk is also considering a fourth generation mobile network project worth Tk 4,600 crore, which is currently being evaluated by the Planning Commission.

Under the project, the operator will establish 25,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across the country, and the project's tenure is supposed to be between 2016 and 2019.