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AKTEL to invest $100m in network expansion

STAR BUSINESS REPORT
The Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh (TMIB), the service provider of AKTEL mobile phone, plans to invest $100 million on a master network expansion programme in Bangladesh.
The expansion will bring 62 district headquarters under AKTEL's network and add 500,000 new entrants to its subscribers' base by early next year, TMIB Director Salahuddin Kasem Khan told reporters at a briefing yesterday.
AKTEL yesterday reduced tariffs for different types of mobile packages ranging between 33 per cent and 50 per cent and launched a new postpaid package "AKTEL Reach Out".
Khan said $60 million will be invested this year and the rest in the coming year.
The target of the network expan-
sion is to achieve almost nationwide coverage within this year by extending it from 38 districts to 62 districts by the year-end.
He said as Bangladesh has the lowest teledensity in the region AKTEL wants to reach the maximum number of people on the basis of "one phone, one household" plan, with the network service providing "mobile to mobile" facility.
AKTEL has started implementing the master network expansion programme which will help it increase base stations, upgrade short message service (SMS) centres, the TMIB's General Manager, Marketing Yussli Yusoff said.
He said after the planned upgrading is done, the subscribers will be able to send SMS to cell phones of other operators and receive SMS from others as well.
"I believe the addition of value to
our service will help us increase revenue," he said.
The fresh investment will raise the TMIB's total investment to around $200 million since its launch in 1997, he said.
Its operating income and syndicated bank loans will finance the expansion programme, he said, without elaborating.
But the government should reduce charges for microwave and other fees, which are about 20 times higher than those of neighbouring India, said Yusoff.
He said the increased tax on mobile handsets will also hinder the growth of local mobile industry.
The TMIB, Bangladesh's second largest GSM (global system of mobile) communications operator, is a joint venture of the Telekom Malaysia Bhd of Malaysia and local AK Khan and Company.