Teletalk to enter 3G era in Sept
Thursday, 12 July 2012
Jamal Uddin
State-owned Teletalk will launch 3G mobile phone service in September this year as the struggling wireless carrier moves to steal the limelight with the advanced technology, its top boss said Wednesday.
"We've stepped up our groundwork to launch the cutting-edge technology in time. I believe we can go for test transmission by August," managing director of Teletalk Mujibur Rahman said.
"For the first time, our clients will savour the tastes of 3G (third generation) mobile phone service, since swapping of network is almost complete," he added.
Some 90 million users use cellphones provided by six operators, but Teletalk brand has a minute stake in the country's fiercely competitive mobile telephony sector with only 1.35 million clients.
Mr Rahman told the FE that his company will initially provide services to an estimated 0.3 million users in the capital city and then it would be expanded to divisional cities in phases.
He would not disclose the price of the service, but said it will be "within the reach of the users".
The Teletalk boss said his company would give advertisement regarding this issue soon after getting approval from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the telecom regulator.
Telecom experts say, 3G will bring huge benefits for the users as it will give better speed in internet use in personal computers or laptops. Anybody will be able to make video call, download games and music through cellphones.
For the service, the users will have to have 3G enable handset that was designed to surf the Internet, view pictures of the people they are talking to, watch movies and listen to music on their handsets.
The BTRC had made a draft guideline on 3G mobile phone service in April targeting to make available the service across the country by this year, but the guideline is still being evaluated by the post and telecommunications ministry.
The telecom regulator had planned to select five operators, including four locals, with Teletalk and one foreign entity through auction for the service.
The base price of the auction is suggested to US$30 million for per MHz spectrum of 2100 band. Every operator has to buy 10 MHz spectrum for this service, as per the draft guideline.
The Teletalk will give priority to old customers for 3G service offers while it will fix criteria for the new customers also, Mr Rahman said.
The operator is working to set up new 700 BTS across the country to reach the service in big cities by 2013.
The government had approved the Teletalk for 3G service on an experimental basis for six months from March 2012, but it missed the deadline due to technical problem.
On May 3, 2011, the executive committee for National Economic Council (ECNEC) gave its endorsement for the Tk. 1.9 billion 3G project, out of which Teletalk is providing Tk. 4.24 billion and the rest of the amount was realised from the Chinese EXIM Bank as loan.
State-owned Teletalk will launch 3G mobile phone service in September this year as the struggling wireless carrier moves to steal the limelight with the advanced technology, its top boss said Wednesday.
"We've stepped up our groundwork to launch the cutting-edge technology in time. I believe we can go for test transmission by August," managing director of Teletalk Mujibur Rahman said.
"For the first time, our clients will savour the tastes of 3G (third generation) mobile phone service, since swapping of network is almost complete," he added.
Some 90 million users use cellphones provided by six operators, but Teletalk brand has a minute stake in the country's fiercely competitive mobile telephony sector with only 1.35 million clients.
Mr Rahman told the FE that his company will initially provide services to an estimated 0.3 million users in the capital city and then it would be expanded to divisional cities in phases.
He would not disclose the price of the service, but said it will be "within the reach of the users".
The Teletalk boss said his company would give advertisement regarding this issue soon after getting approval from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the telecom regulator.
Telecom experts say, 3G will bring huge benefits for the users as it will give better speed in internet use in personal computers or laptops. Anybody will be able to make video call, download games and music through cellphones.
For the service, the users will have to have 3G enable handset that was designed to surf the Internet, view pictures of the people they are talking to, watch movies and listen to music on their handsets.
The BTRC had made a draft guideline on 3G mobile phone service in April targeting to make available the service across the country by this year, but the guideline is still being evaluated by the post and telecommunications ministry.
The telecom regulator had planned to select five operators, including four locals, with Teletalk and one foreign entity through auction for the service.
The base price of the auction is suggested to US$30 million for per MHz spectrum of 2100 band. Every operator has to buy 10 MHz spectrum for this service, as per the draft guideline.
The Teletalk will give priority to old customers for 3G service offers while it will fix criteria for the new customers also, Mr Rahman said.
The operator is working to set up new 700 BTS across the country to reach the service in big cities by 2013.
The government had approved the Teletalk for 3G service on an experimental basis for six months from March 2012, but it missed the deadline due to technical problem.
On May 3, 2011, the executive committee for National Economic Council (ECNEC) gave its endorsement for the Tk. 1.9 billion 3G project, out of which Teletalk is providing Tk. 4.24 billion and the rest of the amount was realised from the Chinese EXIM Bank as loan.