BTRC gives unified licence to 3 telcos

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Monday handed over unified license to three mobile operators — Grameenphone Limited, Robi Aziata Limited and Teletalk Bangladesh Limited — with the aim of expansion in the telecommunication sector and providing next generation technological facilities including 5G at all levels.

The license granting ceremony held at the conference room of BTRC building in Agargaon, Dhaka was chaired by BTRC Chairman Engineer Md Mohiuddin Ahmed.

State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Junaid Ahmed Palak were present as the chief guest at the ceremony.

Under the guideline, “Regulatory and Licensing Guidelines for Cellular Mobile Services in Bangladesh” a unified license titled (a) Cellular Mobile Services Operator License and (b) Radio Communications Apparatus License for Cellular Mobile Services is handed over in favour of the operators.

This has resulted in bringing everything under one license instead of separate licenses and guidelines for earlier 2G, 3G, 4G technologies and spectrum fees.

In the case of 5G, the unified license takes into account availability of sufficient access spectrum and backhaul fiber as well as permission to use public infrastructure, offshore cloud facilities, roll out obligations, network security etc.

Department of Posts and Telecommunications on February 6 approves “Regulatory and Licensing Guidelines for Cellular Mobile Services in Bangladesh” and it was issued by BTRC on February 13.

State Minister Palak said, “We currently have 19 crore mobile users and around 13 crore internet subscribers in the telecom sector. The decision to issue a unified license will bring positive results to the telecommunication sector. The operators will be able to provide high-speed wireless internet facilities to the customers in the future.”

“Due to the opportunity to provide multi-dimensional services, the operators will get the benefit of their investment and government’s revenue collection will also increase. The use of data is increasing along with voice calls,” he said.

The state minister advised the operators to launch digital products.

“Spectrums have already been allotted in favour of the operators for implementation of 5G technology. There will not be any complication to provide new technical services including 5G,” Palak added.

He urged the mobile operators to implement all the services under the unified license as soon as possible.