Cellphone operators can share network

The cellular phone operators in the country could share or rent base transceiver station (BTS), commonly known as "Tower", which is the main part of the wireless phone operation, as the telecom regulator has given permission to form BTS management company, said officials. They said the regulatory body-Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) -- has taken the initiative to make the telecommunication services easier in rural and remote areas, as the operator who doesn't have BTS in the areas could rent BTS from others. Taking to BSS, Sunil Kanti Bose, chairman of the regulatory body, said that the commission has approved the BTS management company, which would be an associate organisation of the cellular phone operator. "The Cellular Phone operators will now enjoy own BTS management services through an associate organisation...but, at first they have to form a separate company to run the management job," he said. Mr Bose said that the commission has given permission to the cellular phone operator Robi for the BTS management, who is the only operator applied for the job. "If other operators applied for forming BTS Management Company, they would be given permission." Officials said Robi now could establish an associate company through erging all of its BTSs and could rent or share its BTS with other operators. Robi Executive Vice-President Mahmudur Rahman told the news agency that they have got the permission from the regulator to run BTS Management Company. The operators have to employ huge manpower for maintaining the BTS that require vast amount of money. Besides, they have to face different kinds of problem such as land and power crisis that prompted the perators move out from BTS installation. According to BTRC, six cellular phone operators have around 33,000 BTS across the country, of which the market leader Grameenphone owns around 14,000 BTS while Robi has around 8,000 BTS. Besides, at present around ten crore people in the country are using cellular phone, according to the BTRC. The BTRC chairman said they have taken the initiative to reduce the cost and other negative impacts for the installation of more BTS. "If the operators share a BTS, cost would be reduced as they don't have to install new BTS that might save money, land, power and others," he said. Bose noted that the initiative would make the telecommunication services easier in rural and remote areas due to sharing of BTS. He informed that the regulator would not charge any tariff for it, only the operators have to ink agreement for BTS sharing. In many other countries including neighboring India, the operators are sharing BTS, he added.