Five entities to use BR optical fibre network

Two telecom operators and three NTTN-licensed companies are set to lease the optical fibre network of the Bangladesh Railway (BR) for improving their respective bandwidth capacity as well as help increase earnings of the state-owned train operator.
Officials said Bahon Limited, Summit Communications Limited, Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd, Robi Axiata Ltd and Fiber @ Hoe Ltd have been selected through bidding to use the Optical Fiber Cores (OFC) for five years in different sections under the BR.
The contract value is Tk 1.77 billion, they added. The contracts will be signed between the BR and the companies at the Rail Bhaban in the city today (Tuesday) in presence of Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujon.
The BR invited tenders in September last year to lease out the spare dark fibre cores among the Nationwide Telecommunications Transmission Network (NTTN), ANS (Access Network Service) operators/licensed telecommunication operators and other authorised users having valid licences issued by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Under the contracts, Bahon Limited will lease 1683.93 km under 25 sections, Summit Communications Limited 895.21 km under 13 sections, Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd. 595.39km under eight sections, Robi Axiata Ltd 280.48 km under five sections and Fiber @ Hoe 177.81 km under three sections.
Earlier 2071.70 km of the Optical Fiber Cores was leased out to GrameenPhone Ltd and 2190.64 km to Robi Axiara Ltd.
According to documents, BR first installed 1600 km of the Optical Fiber Cores based on an integrated telecommunication network and connected with 300 stations in 1984. This network was later expanded to 1605.74 km in various sections with introduction of a uniform telecommunication network raising the total length to 3205.06 km.
The BR received the NTTN licence from the BTRC on 20 November 2014. However, earlier BR and GP had been continuing a bilateral agreement on the sharing the BR OFC capacity under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model since 1997 which later continued.
BR's telecommunication system provides Train Control (TC) and Station to Station (STS) Telephones to all operating stations of BR, and 1700 M-Centrex telephones and several Level-crossing phones for safe train operations. The block communication system with the station signaling is fully controlled using the BR OFC.
The officials said the minimum rate fixed in the lease offer is Tk 3.60 per OFC/Meter/Month (excluding VAT).
The rate of lease will be fixed at an incremental rate of 5 per cent at the end of each contract year.

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