Bangladesh is set to ink an orbital slot procurement deal with the Moscow-based space organisation today (Thursday), paving the way for launching the much-hyped national satellite, Bangabandhu-1, sources said.
"An agreement between Bangladesh Telecommuni-cation Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and Intersputnik International Organisation of Space Communication will be signed today (Thursday) in Dhaka," commission secretary Md Sarwar Alam said.
He said to sign the contract, director general of the Moscow-based international satellite communications services providing organisation Vadim Belov is now in Dhaka.
"Through the agreement with the Intersputnik, Bangladesh will get 119.1- degree east longitude orbital slot that will largely help ensure uninterrupted telecommunication services at a substantially lower cost", Mr Alam said adding that almost all the modern and enlightened nations have their own satellite in the orbit.
He noted once the satellite is launched, the country could save a big amount of money required for hiring the satellite television channels and mobile operators.
The commission secretary noted that presently, the country pays around $14 million to different satellite operators every year to get necessary bandwidth for the country's television channels and mobile operators.
He said the proposed national satellite will bring many Asian countries including Indonesia, the Philippines, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan under the network.
He said the preliminary implementation activities are in progress in consultation with the USA-based consultancy firm, Space Partnership International (SPI) and specialist advice of International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
However, IT experts blamed political parties for failure to ensure own slot in the orbit, even 18 years after the initiative. "We had proposed the then government to have its own orbital slot in 1997," he noted. Â
"Because of consecutive juvenile political leadership, we lost our own slot in the orbit," Mustafa Jabbar, former president of Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS), said adding that now we are relying on rental space of the Russian company.
However, he congratulated the initiative of the government and requested to make it ready for operation as soon as possible. According to the plan, the government is committed to sending the national satellite by 2017.
BTRC officials said the telecommunication system in Bangladesh has always been suffering from interruptions and problems as disasters hit the country. During such emergency situation, Satellite network can play an important role in ensuring uninterrupted telecommunication services.
Initially, the telecom regulator formed a committee in April, 2008 which was then reformed in January, 2010. Later, on January 26, 2012 the government approved a project styled 'preparatory functions and supervision in launching a communication and broadcasting satellite'.
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BD set to sign orbital slot procurement deal with Russian co
Khairul Islam | Published: January 15, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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