Sunday, August 28, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Nokia, Motorola command half of world market for new mobile phones

Nokia and Motorola manufactured about half of all mobile phones sold worldwide during the second quarter of 2005, according to statistics published by the research institute Gartner.

From April to June, 190.5 million handsets were sold globally, a 21.6-percent increase compared to the same period of 2004.

Both companies increased their market share, with leader Nokia accounting for 31.9 percent of all sales and Motorola in second place with 17.9 percent.

Sales of Nokia were boosted by demand in in North America and Latin America, where the Finnish company reclaimed the number one spot.

US-based Motorola has made significant inroads in the western European market and is now the second biggest manufacturer of phones, a leap from fifth place a year ago, Gartner said.

For the world market, Korean phone makers Samsung and LG increased their market share to 12.8 percent and 6.5 percent at the expense of Sony Ericsson and Siemens, which saw their market share fall.

Sony Ericsson had a 6.2 percent share, while Siemens had 4.7 percent.

Source: AP

Wednesday, August 24, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

WorldTel loses legal battle for PSTN monopoly

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a High Court verdict cancelling the four-year exclusive rights of the UK- based company WorldTel, permitting the government to allow more private sector landline operators in the central zone.

A full bench of the Appellate Division, comprising the chief justice, Syed JR Mudassir Husain, Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim and Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury, rejected the petition filed by the WorldTel Bangladesh Limited, seeking leave to appeal against the High Court’s verdict.

The High Court on April 23 rejected the WorldTel petition challenging a government move to cancel a clause in the agreement that stopped it from opening up the area to other operators before four years have elapsed.

Welcoming the Supreme Court’s judgement, the officials of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said that the verdict has enabled the commission to invite applications for the central zone or Dhaka Multi-Exchange for other private sector operators.

The multi-exchange area covers Dhaka city, Jinjira, Savar, Narayanganj, Gazipur and Tongi, which account for, according to the commission, about 60 per cent of the total telecom demands of Bangladesh.

‘There is demand for around 25 lakh landline phones in the central zone right now,’ said a BTRC official, adding that least 10 companies could easily be given licences to operate in the zone because of the huge demand.

The officials of the commission said that BTRC will start the process to invite applications as soon as possible to meet the huge demand for landline connectivity.

The officials said most of the companies, which obtained licences for other zones, are waiting for Dhaka city to be opened up to private operators as the area is the most lucrative.

The UK-based WorldTel obtained a licence in July 2001 from the government to provide 3,00,000 landlines in Dhaka city at an investment of about $300 million on a build-own-operate basis with a four-year exclusive right.

The commission invited bids for private landline operation on February 17 under the open licence system in four zones, out of the five zones segmented by the commission, and has so far awarded about 35 licences to 19 companies for operation in the north-east, south-east, north-west and south-west zones.

But Dhaka city has been left out of the open licence system as WorldTel issued a legal notice to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in January 2004, preventing any move to open up the area to other operators.

But in May 2004, the BTRC cancelled the exclusive rights of WorldTel, terming the clause anti-competitive and violative of the Telecommunications Act-2001, which stipulated opening up the telecom sector to more private sector operators.

However, following cancellation of the exclusive rights, WorldTel filed a writ in the High Court challenging the BTRC’s decision, which was rejected by the High Court on April 23 this year.

The full bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on April 27 ruled on a status quo and stayed the High Court’s ruling after WorldTel’s appeal against the High Court’s verdict, and also directed BTRC not to issue licences to any other private operators.

Meanwhile, the WorldTel is likely to begin commercial operation by November to provide about three lakh landline connections in phases.

In April, WorldTel signed a $120 million agreement with Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer, ZTE Corporation, for installation of CDMA technology to operate according to the wireless local loop system.

The commission, earlier, fixed the licence fee for Dhaka at Tk 5 crore and renewal fees at Tk 2 crore.

Private sector PSTN operators, who got licences from the commission for other zones, welcomed the Appellate Division’s verdict.

Quamrul Islam Siddique, managing director of Dhaka Telephone, which got licences for four zones, said that they are happy at the Supreme Court’s verdict and hoped that the commission would soon invite applications to allow private PSTN operators in the lucrative central zone.

Nokia in Bangladesh mobile infrastructure market

Nokia has sealed its very first deal in the Bangladesh cellular mobile infrastructure market by supplying Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) and Online Service Controller (OSC) rating and charging solution to GrameenPhone (GP).

Neither Nokia nor GP revealed the value of this deal.

Nokia claims its solutions will enhance GP's existing SMS (short message system) service as well as significantly increase the operator's SMS capacity. These solutions will also enable GP to offer a series of new services, according to Nokia's press release.

Despite having strong presence in India and Pakistan, Nokia has not seriously focused on the Bangladesh mobile market since three GSM licences were issued in 1996. The Finnish vendor has, however, opened its office in Dhaka lately, and reportedly launched aggressive campaign in the fast growing mobile phone sector.

Nokia has replaced Logica's SMS system in GP. A spokesperson of GP told that it will retain Logica's equipment as a backup solution.

The industry insiders consider Nokia's entry as a challenge to Ericsson. The Swedish vendor had been solely supplying the entire infrastructure of GP from the very first day of its operation.

GP invited bids for a second vendor for its infrastructure in 2003. Ericsson and Nokia locked horn in that event and the Swedish vendor finally clinched the deal by offering an undisclosed amount of predatory discount to retain the largest customer in Bangladesh. GP sources said that it is going to invite similar bids very shortly.

"The entry provides us an opportunity to demonstrate our technology and service leadership," says Rajeev Suri, Nokia's senior vice president of Asia Pacific region's Networks Division. "This deal marks the beginning of our cooperation with GP, a pioneer and market leader in the Bangladesh mobile market," he added.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Banglalink, AIESEC BD sign partnership deal

Banglalink and AIESEC Bangladesh signed a partnership deal on 'Conference and Exchange Partner' in the city recently.

Banglalink Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lars P Reichelt and AIESEC Bangladesh President Shamnoon Muheb Chowdhury signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

After signing of the agreement, Banglalink and AIESEC will be working together for sharing skills and ideas.

At the same time, as a socially responsible company, Banglalink will be supporting AIESEC conferences to ensure true development of youth leadership and a better future while AIESEC will be providing talents from all over the world to come to Banglalink and work in diversified sectors to add value to the management of Banglalink.

AIESEC is a student organisation in the world providing an international platform for young people to discover and develop their potentials to have a positive impact on the society.

Monday, August 22, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

BDDL becomes AKTel's corporate client

Building Development and Design Limited (BDDL), a real- estate developers company in the country, has become AKTel corporate mobile phone client under an agreement signed in the city recently.

In this connection, the agreement was signed between AKTel Managing Director Nasir Bin Baharom and BDDL Chairman Sayed Nazrul Biddut.

After signing of the agreement, BDDL will enjoy several special benefits as corporate customer such as group talk plan, discounted bill and customised facilities.

Both chief executive officers expressed their satisfaction over the new relationship. They also emphasised on strengthening the corporate relationship in the future and the opening up of new frontiers of cooperation.

Sunday, August 21, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Govt to shut CHT mobile network

The government is going to close down the mobile network of the private operators in three hill districts -- Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachhari -- on security grounds.

Local sources said mobile connections of more than 200 mobile centres in Rangamati were closed on August 17 as part of the process.

A source of security forces said it has no connection with Wednesday's countrywide bomb attacks. Intelligence agencies prepared the list of the mobile centres for security reasons a long time ago.

A mobile phone businessman in Bandarban said the mobile centres are being closed following orders of the security forces and the same thing is going to happen soon in Bandarban and Khagrachhari.

Though Aktel, CityCell, Banglalink and GrameenPhone have been operating mobile networks in 61 districts for two decades, the hill region could not be taken under the mobile connectivity in face of obstructions from the security forces.

Security forces think that the law and order situation in the hill region will deteriorate considerably due to mobile phones as several terrorist groups have taken shelter there.

The mobile network of Chittagong zone will be available in some places in the hill region.

More than four hundred mobile phone centres have been set up in the last few years in different areas of the three hill districts, installing antennas on the high hills.

The regular customers said that they will not be able to contact their relatives living abroad if the mobile phone shops are closed down in the hill region.

Source: Bangladesh News

Hanif Enterprise becomes GrameenPhone's corporate client

Hanif Enterprise of the M/S Kafiluddin Group, a transportation company, has recently signed an agreement with GrameenPhone Ltd under corporate sales package initiative.

Md Sirajul Islam Ricoh, managing director of the Kafiluddin Group, and Tanvir Ibrahim, head of corporate sales of the GrameenPhone, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

It was hoped that the GP subscriptions will strengthen the nationwide operations of the Kafuluddin Group.

GP mobiles will be used to establish communications among the employees of the company in remote places of the country.

Subscription to the GP Corporate package is likely to reduce the communication cost of Hanif Enterprise. They will also benefit from GP's unique Value Added Services.

Hanif Enterprise has been operating in the transportation sector since 1965. It has wide coverage in the country. Other than transport business, the Kafuluddin Group is involved in construction, trading, CNG refueling, cold storage and brick manufacturing.

Saturday, August 20, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

AKTEL renovates customer care centre at Gulshan

AKTEL, one of the GSM service providers of the country renovated its customer care centre at Gulshan-2 on Thursday, said a press release.

The chief operating officer of AKTEL, Vijay Watson, inaugurated the modernised centre, by unveiling a foundation monument and cutting a cake.

Considering the convenience and better services to its subscribers, this modern renovated customer care centre will accommodate a greater number of customers as a one stop service point.

The company continues its drive to launch new customer care centres in every major town of Bangladesh and will introduce more services with variety of products and packages.

The general manager, marketing, Jose Raveendran, along with other senior officials of the company were present at the ceremony.

BTRC formulates new national numbering plan

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission has been working on a new numbering plan for operators. The plan is intended to address potential problems likely to arise in a multi-operator and multi-service environment.

The new plan could cater to the numbering needs for about the next 25 years given that there are no changes in the basic structure, said officials of the regulatory commission.

Commission officials said the commission has already prepared a draft of the new numbering plan with consultants from international telecom union, a UN based organisation to oversee telecommunications and ICT development across the globe.

The current national numbering plan was last reviewed in 2001, which covered basic as well as other services like mobile and paging.

Commission officials said although the numbering plan could cater to the needs of the existing and new services for another few years, the commission felt there was a need to review the existing plan because of introduction of a large number of new telecom services and opening up of the entire sector for private operation.

"The existing numbering plan has certain limitations and bottlenecks, which could complicate telecom growth," said a commission official. He said the current plan was formulated at a time when there were no competition in basic telecom services and the competition in mobiles had just begun.

"As such, the commission felt the need to review the existing plan and formulate a new one, which will be futuristic, flexible and be able to cater to the numbering needs for about the next 25 years," the official observed.
Keeping this in view, the new plan has been formulated for a projected forecast of 100 per cent tele-density by the year 2031 and thus making numbering spaces available for more than 19 crore connections comprising fixed, WLL and cellular mobile connections, added the official.

According to the officials, the new plan will be able to meet the challenges of the changing telecom environment, reserve numbering capacity to meet the undefined future needs, support effective competition by fair access to numbering resources, meet subscriber needs for a meaningful and user-friendly scheme and to standardise number length wherever practical keeping the changes in the existing scheme to the minimum, said the draft.

According to the draft plan, only the decimal character set 0-9 has been used for all number allocations while letters and other non-decimal characters will not form part of the National (Significant) Number.

In the plan, closed numbering scheme with 10-digit national number has been followed as it would expand the existing numbering capacity ten times.
The National Numbering Plan would be a zone based scheme with one digit identifying the zone and the next nine defining the subscriber number. Nine digits would be used to identify subscribers within each zone.

The commission has segmented the country into five zones - central, southeast, southwest, northeast and northwest - to provide landline licences to private operators and the commission has already issued 35 licences to 19 public switched telecom network operators in four zones except the central zones.

On the other hand, there are around five mobile phone operators providing service across the country.

As per the draft, all service providers will use '100', '101' and '102' for police, fire and ambulance services, which was not available in the existing plan.

Source: NewAge

Friday, August 19, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Banglalink Post-Paid subscribers now can pay their bills at Bank Asia

The subscribers of Banglalink mobile phone service providers would now be able to pay their bills at any of the Bank Asia Limited branches in the country, said a press release.

The chief financial officer of Banglalink, Ezzeldin Heikal, and the senior executive vice-president and head of operations of Bank Asia Limited, Erfanuddin Ahmed, on Thursday in Dhaka, signed an agreement to this effect.


Both the organisations would also enhance their business link by providing value added services to their clients, the release added.

Other senior officials of Banglalink and Bank Asia also attended the ceremony.

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

ATN Bangla becomes GrameenPhone's corporate client

Multi Media Production Co. Ltd., the operating company of popular satellite television channel ATN Bangla, has recently signed an agreement with GrameenPhone Ltd. under the latter's corporate sales package initiative, said a press release.

Under the deal, ATN Bangla selected GrameenPhone as its total telecommunication partner. ATN Bangla will be using GP mobiles to maintain effective communication among its reporters and other partners around the country. Subscription to the GP corporate package has significantly reduced its communication cost. It will also benefit from GP's unique Value Added Services.

Senior Vice President (Administration) of Multi Media Production Sarker Feroz and Head of Corporate Sales of GrameenPhone Tanvir Ibrahim signed the agreement.

Shandhani signs agreement with AKTEL

AKTel, the second largest cellular service providers of the country donated Tk 1,22,000 to the Street Children's Centre - 'Mayer Anchole', operated by a France based non-government organisation (NGO) working for helpless street children of Dhaka city. This amount would be utilised for education and food programmes for the distressed children of the centre.

AKTel Managing Director Md Nasir Bin Baharom handed over the cheque of the said amount to the Project Manager of Street Children's Partners Bangladesh Linda Barberis at a simple ceremony held at the rehabilitation centre in the city Tuesday. Javed Tariq, Assistant General Manager and Head of Corporate Affairs, AKTEL was also present at the occasion. Apart from core business, AKTel is always committed towards the improvement of the distressed people of the society. The donation was made under the corporate social responsibility programme of AKTel.

Meanwhile, Shandhani Life Insurance Company Limited, one of the leading LICs of Bangladesh has chosen AKTel as their corporate mobile phone operator. A corporate agreement signing ceremony between AKTel and Shandhani Life Insurance Company Limited was held Thursday at the conference room of AKTel in the city. As a corporate customer, Shandhani Life Insurance has taken 300 connections from AKTel and will enjoy several special benefits such as group talk plan, discounted bill and customised facilities.

AKTel Chief Operating Officer Vijay Watson, General Manager Marketing Jose Ravee, Head of the Corporate Affairs Javed Tariq, Head of Corporate Sales Tofazzul Hossain were also present on the occasion.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Banglalink launches another New Package

Few Months back after the launch of upper class, Banglalink has come up with another new product named "call & control".

The new product has the value of post-paid and the convenience of pre-paid.

The call & control's line connection will be billed through a fixed monthly fee (like post-paid), while talk time will be charged through pre-paid scratch cards (like pre-paid).

With this product, the customers will be able to enjoy low tariff rates of post-paid, which also means that the line does not get blocked or disconnected. Besides, validity period of scratch cards are unlimited.

Monthly fees are Tk. 50 for M2M and Tk. 125 for standard connections, says a press release.

Moreover, the airtime and SMS are set at specially lowered call & control rates. Airtime per minute charges as low as Tk. 4 for peak, Tk. 3 off peak and Tk. 1 late night on net, and Tk 4 peak, Tk. 3 off peak and Tk 1.76 late night off net. SMS per minute flat rates of Tk 1 on net and Tk 1.75 off net anytime of the day and night.

Besides, call & control offers some special exclusive services. The new services include the hotline number 100 that ensures the clients to get dedicated sales and customer care service whenever called and without delay. The call back service is another facility, where a subscriber can send the SMS "call me" to 120, and someone from Banglalink can call him or her.

Also there is personal assistant service, which answers the customers' calls, records the important messages and plays them back at an convenient time.

Ofcourse you can still get practically any assistance to make Banglalink mobile experience better and easier from BanglaLink Booths in the city.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

GrameenPhone users will vote in Channel i-Lux Superstar contest

Mobile operator GrameenPhone will arrange SMS voting for the Channel I-Lux Superstar contest, arranged by private television Channel i and Unilever Bangladesh.

GrameenPhone subscribers will be able to vote for their favorite participants during the final selection process through SMS.

The subscribers will need to send SMS to 3456, following the instruction given on television.

This talent hunt programme is looking for female talents and thousands of young girls have taken part in the preliminary selection rounds held in cities.

The mobile operator and the television channel recently signed an agreement in this regard.

Channel I managing director Faridur Reza Sagar and GrameenPhone marketing director Kafil HS Muyeed signed the agreement.

Monday, August 15, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Aktel NEW Offer

Country's second largest mobile phone operator AKtel annuonces another attractive offer for it's pre-paid subscribers, source: AKTel website. If you activate any new AkTel pre-paid connection in this August and you will gain extra Tk. 200 talktime free.

This offer is valid from August 1 to till August 31, 2005. Subscribers will get pre-loaded talktime, if any, will remain valid, 20 days' validity or Pre-loaded validity, whichever is longer, will prevail. The subscribers must follow the conditions to apply and rules and regulations must be followed.

Sunday, August 14, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

GrameenPhone announces Special Offers

GrameenPhone Ltd (GP) earlier today announced the launch of a new promotion with an offer of free airtime and other special features including first minute free incoming from BTTB call for Easy Gold subscribers.

Under the promotion that starts tomorrow (15th Aug) and will continue until September 10, GP is offering low connection charges for all its products including Tk 400 free airtime to be used up in both SMS and voice calls for the pre-paid connections.

Erik Aas, chief executive officer of GP, announced the new promotion at a press conference in Chittagong.

From August 15 onwards, GrameenPhone is also offering first minute free incoming from BTTB calls for EASY Gold subscribers, said GP officials.

Under the low connection charge option of this period (August 15 to September 10), Easy will be available at Tk 1,200, Easy Gold at Tk 2,000 while djuice connection at Tk 1,100 for the company's pre- paid segment, they said.

Under post-paid subscriptions, GP Regular (both way BTTB connectivity) will be available at Tk 4,495, Anytime 500 (bundle product with both way BTTB connectivity) at Tk 3,850 with Tk 1,500 bundle fee included. Anytime 300 (with incoming BTTB connectivity) will be available at Tk 3,275 with Tk 1,000 bundle fee included. And GP National (with incoming BTTB connectivity) will be available at Tk 2,125.

Besides, for dJuice, a special promotion will run for three months starting from August 11, under which all existing and new djuice subscribers will enjoy extended off-peak hour from 10pm to 6am instead of previous 12pm to 6am.

Sony Ericsson P910

Overview:

P910 Mobile phone, PDA and digital camera – with video. Writing e-mail on a mobile device has never been easier. P910a has a fully featured keyboard on the back of the flip for easy text input. And what about taking pictures and sending them to your friend’s mobile phone or e-mail – this is easy too. Press the camera button, tap the send button on the P910i touchscreen, choose a contact and your picture or video clip is on its way.
P910 has the most impressive combination of mobile phone, PDA, camera and entertainment features you will find anywhere. One device. Every possibility.

Really, I like this one very much.




Friday, August 12, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Mobily, the Mobile company cuts rate of calls to Bangladesh

Mobily, the new mobile phone service provider in Saudi Arabia has further reduced its international call rates from Wednesday.

Calls rates to Bangladesh, Pakistan and India have been slashed to SR 1.90 per minute while calls to Egypt reduced to SR 1.70. Calls to United States and United Kingdom will be SR 1.80 and 2.30 per minute respectively. Philippines will be 2.30 per minute, according to the Arab News.

The new rate is applicable for customers who register their favourite international numbers. "The rate is applicable at all times throughout the week," Humoud Al Ghobaini, Chief of Corporate Communications of Mobily said.

He said that the calls are being charged by seconds not by minutes. By applying this new tariff, he said the company is providing a variety of choices to all segments of the market. Mobily has signed an agreement for international roaming with more than 255 mobile operators in 150 countries. The new additions include Macau, Luxembourg, Denmark and Columbia.
Source: newsbbc.co.uk

Thursday, August 11, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Nokia intros Mobile Search

Nokia today announced a new application called Mobile Search that aims to simplify searching on the mobile web. It integrates several search services into one application.


The current service and content providers incorporated in the search application include Eniro, Fonecta, Medio Systems, Yahoo!, Yell.com, as well as digital map solution provider AtlasCT and digital map data provider NAVTEQ.

The application is currently being tested in the UK, Finland and Sweden. It will be included with all Nokia 6680, 6681 and 6630 smartphones but existing owners can download the application for free.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Telecoms subscribers seek BTRC role

Telecoms subscribers at a workshop yesterday sought proper role of the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BRTC) to safeguard their interest.

Although there have been tremendous developments in the telecommunication, the consumers, at large, are not sufficiently aware of their rights which consequently deprives them of required facilities, they alleged.

They were addressing the inaugural function of a three- day training workshop titled 'Consumer Awareness Building Telecommuni-cation and ICT Services' jointly organised by BTRC and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in co-operation with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at Brac Inn at Mahakhali in Dhaka.

Citing different examples of violation of subscribers' rights in the country, they said the functions of the regulator can be effectively executed if it obtains the market feedback.

Chairman of BTRC Muhammad Omar Farooq called upon telecoms operators to spend a portion of their profit on the benefit of telecom subscribers.

Bangladesh is a market with lots of potential and every operator is doing good business here, Farooq said while inaugurating the workshop.

Fazlur Rahman, director co- ordination of Telekom Malaysia International Bangladesh (TMIB), the service operator of AKTel, said competition is vibrant in Bangladesh's telecommunication industry and consumers have started dominating the market.

The role of operators towards consumer satisfaction has attained a new dimension, he added.

AMM Reza-e-Rabbi, vice- chairman of BTRC, presided over the inaugural session.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Sony Ericsson W550i announced

Sony Ericsson today announced the W550i, another music phone that will be Walkman branded (it joins the W800i and W600). All of the W series phones feature extra memory and a music player. Here are the Specs for the W550i:

  • 256MB memory
  • Bluetooth
  • 1.3 megapixel camera
  • 176×220 pixel 262K display

The W550i is a tri-band (900/1800/1900) GSM handset and will begin shipping in the fourth quarter. It is not expected to make it to the US (it's very similar to the W600a which is a US handset).

One more photos of the W550i are available below.


Third phase of Teletalk lottery draw held

A total of 1,20,694 applicants across the country have won Teletalk SIM (Subscriber's Identification Module) cards through lottery under different categories.

Teletalk Bangladesh Ltd, the state-owned mobile phone operator, held its third phase lottery draw for SIM (Subscriber's Identification Module) distribution at a city hotel yesterday.

Among the winners, 90,000 were selected under the category of Gold applicants, 20,694 under Prime-10000 and Prime-5000 categories and 10,000 under Silver category.

The lottery results are available online since 10:00 pm last night at the following web sites:

http://padma.teletalk.com.bd, http://kirtonkhola.teletalk.com.bd,

http://jamuna.teletalk.com.bd, http://karnafuli.teletalk.com.bd,

http://korotoa.teletalk.com.bd, and http://rupsha.teletalk.com.bd.

Speaking as chief guest at the lottery draw programme, Vice-Chancellor of Brac University Prof. Jamilur Reza Chowdhury said the mobile phone subscribers in the country have been subjected to pay high call charge because of a cartel of four private mobile telecom operators.

Bangladeshi subscribers pay higher call charge in comparison with that of neighbouring countries, he said.

Lower rate of call charge of the Teletalk will ease the situation to some extent, he said, adding the advent of private telecom operators has already started to improve Bangladesh's position among four to five countries with the lowest tele-density in the world.

The Teletalk will start SIM distribution in Sylhet and Chittagong on August 27 while the winners across the country will be able to collect their SIM cards within two weeks from designated branches of the Dhaka Bank, Prime Bank, Basic Bank and City Bank.

Of the 90,000 winners of Teletalk SIM under Gold category, 6,000 are from Barisal division, 22,200 from Dhaka, 28,600 from Chittagong, 10,700 from Khulna, 6,800 from Sylhet and 15,700 from Rajshahi.

In two previous lottery, 70,000 subscribers from only Dhaka won the SIM cards.

The total number of Teletalk subscribers at present is 84,000, said its General Manager Md Aminul Hasan. "This is perhaps the last episode of lottery for SIM distribution, as no further distribution will be possible in near future without expansion of Base Trans-Receiver Station (BTS)."

The existing BTS facility can cover about 80 percent of the Upazilas of 61 districts and deal with around four lakh mobile phone connections, said Teletalk Managing Director Md Obaidullah.

Saturday, August 06, 2005 - Bangladesh Telecom

Teletalk users still lack interconnectivity

Users are yet to get easy access to mobile phones between Teletalk and other private operators due to installation of weak and low capacity network exchanges.

Teletalk sources yesterday said under the technical set up, only 270 subscribers of Teletalk and GrameenPhone can enjoy connection at a time, while the number between Teletalk and CityCell will be 270 and with AKTel 150 respectively.

However, the GrameenPhone (GP) is leading the mobile phone operation with more than three million subscribers, followed by AKTel with two million, Banglalink 5,00,000 and CityCell 3,75,000.

The Teletalk authorities said the interconnection link with the Banglalink would be completed by Sunday.

Teletalk subscribers said calls from their end hardly reach the mobile phones of other operators and it is the same in terms of receiving calls.

The network usually remains out of order in most of the areas in the city, especially inside the building, they added.

Regarding networking problem, they said network trouble is observed during incoming call from Grameenphone pre-paid services to the Teletalk.

The problem would be identified and solved immediately, sources said.

Officials, however, said the network connection as well as capacity will be increased based on the network traffic.

The Teletalk earlier signed interconnectivity agreements with the four mobile phone companies AKTel, CityCell, GrameenPhone and Banglalink.

He said the network set up under the signing of agreements with the private mobile phone operators would definitely generate enthusiasm among the users of Teletalk, which offers cheapest facilities compared to the other mobile operators.