BTRC to sit with telcos over tower sharing

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) wants to hold a discussion with telecom operators regarding sharing their infrastructures for improved connectivity and services.

“Infrastructure sharing is now crucial to spreading telecom and internet services everywhere. We have already created a guideline for active sharing, which the operators are not following. So we will discuss the issue with stakeholders soon,” said BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder.

He made the remarks while addressing a roundtable on ‘Challenges in infrastructure sharing for the development of networks’ organised by the Telecom and Technology Network Bangladesh (TRNB) at the Brac Centre Inn in the capital’s Mohakhali on Thursday.

According to the BTRC chairman, telecom companies should place more emphasis on service quality than on market share, and to that end, tower sharing can be financially advantageous for all participating companies.

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar attended the program as the chief guest, while former secretary general of the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) TIM Nurul Kabir presented the keynote.

Mustafa Jabbar said, “If the telecom operators share towers, their services can be enriched without having to invest a huge amount of money to provide quality services to customers.”

He urged the telecom companies to fully implement tower sharing so that all four companies could utilize those towers.

TRNB President Rased Mehedi and General Secretary Masuduzzaman Robin also spoke at the program while representatives from all four operators—Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, and Teletalk, and AMTOB, attended the event among others.