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Fury of flood

2,000 mobile towers in 12 districts go inoperative

FE REPORT | August 24, 2024 00:00:00


As many as 2,000 telecommunication towers in 12 districts of the country have gone inoperative due to severe floods, disrupting telecom services.

This information was reported as of 5:00PM on Friday by the observation cell at the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

"Some 2,025 or 16.7 per cent of sites have been affected by the floods, up from 13 per cent earlier in the day. This number is expected to increase further," it says.

According to the monitoring report, there are a total of 12,179 telecommunication sites in the flood-affected areas, of which 10,154 remain active.

Among the affected BTS (base transceiver stations), Feni is the worst hit, with 71 per cent of its sites dysfunctional.

Out of 656 sites in the region, only 190 are operational. Khagrachhari follows, with 114 out of 208 sites dysfunctional.

In Rangamati, 36 per cent of sites are down, while in Noakhali 29.8 per cent are inoperative. Among the flood-affected districts, Sunamganj is in the best condition, with only 24 sites down.

As of Thursday evening, 12 districts - Moulvibazar, Habiganj and Brahmanbaria in the north-central region, along with Cumilla, Feni, Chattogram, Khagrachhari and Noakhali in the southeastern part of the country have experienced flooding.

The affected BTS have impacted all major telecom operators with Grameenphone and Teletalk suffering the most significant losses.

An official release from the BTRC said that the restoration of telecom network would take time as the flood situation was not improving quickly.

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