Revenue earnings of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) fell short of target by 18.82 per cent in the first ten months of fiscal 2007-08, officials said Saturday.
It, however, grew 9.20 per cent in July-April period over the collection in the corresponding time of the last fiscal year.
The state-owned BTTB earned Tk13.03 billion worth of revenue against the target of Tk16.05 billion in the first ten months of the current fiscal.
Brig Gen (retd) MA Malek, Chief Adviser's special assistant for the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications expressed the hope that the revenue earning of BTTB in the fiscal would be closer to the target.
"We'll be able to get closer to the target by June," he told members of the Telecom Reporters Network, Bangladesh (TRNB) at an exchange of views meeting at the BTTB headquarters in the city Saturday.
Mr. Malek said the BTTB is working on introduction of some new technologies like offering 'Nonpayment Channels' and 'Video on Demand' facilities through T&T connection to woo more customers.
He said the state-owned organisation achieved around 90 per cent of its revenue target last fiscal year, when it earned over Tk16.66 billion against its target of Tk18.22 billion.
The government set revenue-earning target for the BTTB in the current fiscal at Tk19.27 billion, up by Tk1.05 billion over that of fiscal 2006-07.
Mr. Malek said BTTB is now ready to become a public limited company from the beginning of the next fiscal year as per previously announced roadmap.
He reiterated that none of the BTTB's 14,000 employees would lose job when it would be transformed into a company.
Mr. Malek said steps are also underway to further expand the network of only state-owned mobile company--Teletalk.
"Some 70 Base Trans-receiver Stations (BTS) of Teletalk, which were virtually out of order for lack of electricity, will be put back into operation and this will help expand its network to more areas of the country," he added.
