Bangladesh launches 3G services

Bangladesh has officially launched 3G mobile-phone services at a ceremony in Dhaka, where

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina used the technology to make a phone call to President Zillur
Rahman, reports Xinhua, China’s state-run news service.

The phone call used the network of state-run Teletalk (Dhaka, Bangladesh), whose 3G service
will soon be available in Dhaka before being introduced to other parts of the country.

Bangladesh has officially launched 3G mobile-phone services at a ceremony in Dhaka, where

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina used the technology to make a phone call to President Zillur
Rahman, reports Xinhua, China’s state-run news service.

The phone call used the network of state-run Teletalk (Dhaka, Bangladesh), whose 3G service
will soon be available in Dhaka before being introduced to other parts of the country.

Government officials hope the technology will help them realize their vision of a Digital
Bangladesh, accelerating the development of the telecoms industry and reducing the digital
divide between cities and rural areas that are badly served with broadband infrastructure.

Authorities are also finalizing the rules for a 3G auction that will allow private-sector companies
from Bangladesh and abroad to enter the 3G market in competition with Teletalk.

Bangladesh intends to sell four slots of bandwidth during that process. Officials have also said
that Teletalk will have to pay the same amount for its 3G spectrum as the private-sector
companies, even though it does not have to participate in the auction.

In June, the Bangladeshi government signed a loan agreement worth $211 million with the
Export-Import Bank of China to support its introduction of 3G.

In the meantime, Ericsson (Stockholm, Sweden) and Huawei (Shenzhen, China) have been
running trials of the technology in the country.

Bangladesh is home to five private-sector operators – Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi, Airtel

and Citycell – that have been pressurizing the government to award 3G licenses in the hope 3G
services will boost the growth of the country’s telecoms market.

In August, Hasina said the regulator should award 3G licenses to private-sector players as soon
as possible.