BTRC seeks public opinion on second draft NTTN guidelines
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
FE Report
The country's telecom regulatory body, working for issuance of licences to private sector for building, operating and maintaining nationwide optical fibre network, has published the second draft of the National Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN) guidelines for public opinion.
On formulation of the guidelines, officials said, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will issue licences to bonafide firms to allow them build, operate and maintain nationwide optical fibre telecommunication network.
They said any organisation or individual could send opinion on the second draft of the NTTN guidelines to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) by November 15.
The second draft of the NTTN guidelines will be available on the web site of the BTRC, which is www.btrc.gov.bd.
The BTRC officials said the telecommunication network would stretch across the country through formulation of the NTTN guideline and gradually help remove the use of overhead cables in the cities and towns.
"Expanding telecommunication network across the country will be hastened under the guidelines of NTTN," BTRC Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Manzurul Alam said.
He said this will also help remove overhead cable network in urban areas.
The BTRC sources said the licence recipients under the NTTN guidelines will be able to provide connection up to backbone network and 'end users'.
A licensee may require to submit a bank guarantee as security deposit worth Tk.100 million in favour of the BTRC within 15 days of issuance of licence with minimum validity of five years, they said.
The duration of the licence might be initially for a term of 15 years.
According to the BTRC sources, foreign equity of any interested firm will be limited to 60 per cent. It said the overseas partner shall directly invest in foreign currency equal to his percentage of ownership and no bank loan from any Bangladeshi scheduled bank or financial institution or leasing company can be raised for the overseas part of the investment.
For the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) a maximum of 70 per cent of Foreign Direct Investment will be allowed but no loans can be raised locally from any financial institution. A partnership/consortium of Non Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) and foreign equity without Bangladeshi partners will not be allowed, the BTRC sources said.
The country's telecom regulatory body, working for issuance of licences to private sector for building, operating and maintaining nationwide optical fibre network, has published the second draft of the National Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN) guidelines for public opinion.
On formulation of the guidelines, officials said, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will issue licences to bonafide firms to allow them build, operate and maintain nationwide optical fibre telecommunication network.
They said any organisation or individual could send opinion on the second draft of the NTTN guidelines to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) by November 15.
The second draft of the NTTN guidelines will be available on the web site of the BTRC, which is www.btrc.gov.bd.
The BTRC officials said the telecommunication network would stretch across the country through formulation of the NTTN guideline and gradually help remove the use of overhead cables in the cities and towns.
"Expanding telecommunication network across the country will be hastened under the guidelines of NTTN," BTRC Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Manzurul Alam said.
He said this will also help remove overhead cable network in urban areas.
The BTRC sources said the licence recipients under the NTTN guidelines will be able to provide connection up to backbone network and 'end users'.
A licensee may require to submit a bank guarantee as security deposit worth Tk.100 million in favour of the BTRC within 15 days of issuance of licence with minimum validity of five years, they said.
The duration of the licence might be initially for a term of 15 years.
According to the BTRC sources, foreign equity of any interested firm will be limited to 60 per cent. It said the overseas partner shall directly invest in foreign currency equal to his percentage of ownership and no bank loan from any Bangladeshi scheduled bank or financial institution or leasing company can be raised for the overseas part of the investment.
For the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) a maximum of 70 per cent of Foreign Direct Investment will be allowed but no loans can be raised locally from any financial institution. A partnership/consortium of Non Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) and foreign equity without Bangladeshi partners will not be allowed, the BTRC sources said.