Satellite in three yrs
BTRC Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Zia Ahmed yesterday said the government is soon to appoint consultants in a couple of days to launch its first satellite in the space.
He said, “Thirty consulting firms have submitted proposals after expressing their interest in this regard following the publication of advertisements in the newspapers.”
“BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommu-nication Regulatory Commission) is scrutinising these proposals.” On completion of the scrutiny, a competent firm will be appointed very soon, he added.
“We are hopeful we would be able to launch our first satellite within three years, as International Telecommu-nications Union (ITU) has allocated slot for this.”
Ahmed was briefing journalists at BTRC head office in the city yesterday to highlight the government's success in two years in the telecom sector.
He also cited the steps taken in the last two years for telecom sector's development saying the commission is working relentlessly to build a Digital Bangladesh and materialise the Vision 2021.
Bangladesh's membership to the 167-member ITU is one of the biggest achievements of the government in the telecom sector, said the BTRC chairman.
The number of telecom subscribers in the country has risen to 6.97 crore from 4.60 crore in the last two years, he said.
“The teledensity rate has clocked to 47.80 percent from 32 percent in the last two years, as 90 percent people and 90 percent areas of the country have been brought under the telecom network.”
The number of Internet subscribers doubled in the last two years as the commission has reduced the bandwidth charge significantly, he said. “The government has decided to further cut the bandwidth charge.”
Upon Airtel's entrance, he said, “Nothing happened wrong; whatever was done in this regard is for the country's greater interest of investment.”
The BTRC chairman said the National Frequency Allocation Policy has been finalised for optimum utilisation of frequency. “From now on allocation of frequency will not be made free.”
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