Bangladesh witnessed a tangible progress in telecommunication system in 2015 by launching initiatives to install an own communication satellite, getting connected to a second submarine cable and reaching out ICT facilities to remote and rugged corners.
Telecommunication experts said the steps taken by the government in the outgoing year were expected to lay a longstanding ultramodern telecommunication infrastructure for the country alongside expanding the facilities at the ordinary peoples’ doorsteps.
They said the initiative for and independent communication and broadcasting satellite would cut foreign dependency while joining an international consortium for the second submarine cable line to secure its ICT backbone.
The laying down of the fiber optic cable stretching up to the rugged and remote areas particularly integrated the marginalized people in the mainstream through the modern communication system, they said.
Officials said works were underway to launch by 2017 the country’s first satellite Bangabandhu-1 in line with a deal the government struck with French firm Thales Alenia Space for “manufacturing, launching and handling” the space outpost.
“The government has a plan to launch the satellite on December 16, 2017, marking the 45th anniversary of the country’s Victory in the Liberation War,” a telecommunication ministry official familiar with the process told BSS.
Bangladesh will be the 54th country when the satellite would be launched into the orbital slot, bought from Russian satellite company “Intersputnik” at a cost of $ 28 million this year.
In 2015, the mobile subscribers number grew to 13.2 crore while the figure was 12.035 crore in 2014 and simultaneously internet users number stood at 5.47 crore while it was 4.36 crore in the previous year with 83.09 percent teledensity and 34.41 percent internet density.
“Bangladesh appears to be a pioneering nation in introducing the biometric SIM registration . . . we are the second country to introduce the system which will protect the ownership of mobile connection and to curb the telephone crimes,” said an official of Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Besides, the government approved the much-awaited Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Guideline, enabling users to switch operators keeping their old numbers under a system expected to be operative in March 2016.
Authorities earlier this year initiated a process to prepare internet services providers database to thwart the unauthorized internet business and help control internet based crimes.
BTRC officials, meanwhile, said they were set to launch another process for handset registration soon to secure the peoples “digital identity”.
During the outgoing year the government introduced mobile money order and cash card services through Postal Department, also entrusting the office with the task of running Post e-centre for rural community while the department was virtually exposed to an extent of loss of comparative utility.
