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Bangladesh lags far behind its neighbours in telecom sector

World Bank study reveals

UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh is the first country in South Asia to allow private participation in the telecommunications sector.
But the implementation of reforms has not been rapid and the country has fallen behind most of its neighbours in this sector, according to a World Bank study.
The study said Bangladesh’s National Telecommunications Policy of 1998 reflects international best practice. But delay in its implementation limited private ;ector entry and delayed invest-
ment.
"As a result, the availability and quality of telecommunication services in Bangladesh lags inter national and regional benchmarks," said the bank’s draft Country Framework Report for Private Participation in Infra structure.
The report titled ’Private Solutions for Infrastructure in Bangla desh’ referred to the 199ttTelecom Policy Statement that had outlined its objective of improving teledensity to "one telephone for 10(1 people" by 2000.
As rhe unofficial goal of the
1'eiecommunications Ministry is now 3.3 by 2005, the study of the WB and Public-Private Infra-struemre Advisory Facility (PP1AF) said: Achieving this goal will need a capacity increase of 3.5 million lines.
However, teledensity had reached only 0.79 by 2002, the study said. "This translates to more than 70 per cent of the population without telephone access. It is not surprising, therec fore, Bangladesh ranks lowest in telephone access as compared to Its neighbours."
When only 0.79 people out of 100 in Bangladesh have the mainline telephone, it is 24.98 for China, 3.94 lor India, 6.17 for Indonesia, 49.9 for Malaysia, 1.34 for Nepal, 2.9 for Pakistan and 4.4 for Sri Lanka.
*l he study found that teledensity might not be relevant for a country like Bangladesh, rather India could be a good example in providing telephone access through public call offices (PCOs).
With a teledensity of just around 4. India reached telephone access to 70 per cent of its population through one million PCOs, 400.000 ol which are located in rural areas
In ^pntrast, Bangladesh has only a liule over 4,000 PCOs (one PCO |wi 32.000 population against huha's one PCO per 1,000), resulting in more than 70 per cent of the population having no access to a telephone.
However, private Grameen-Phone readied telephone to 20,000 villages out of 68.000 villages.
The major suggestion of the WB-PP1AF study for the telecommunications sector is corporatisation and eventual privatisation of the government-owned monopoly.