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BTRC acts to end telecoms interconnection hitch

Mustak Hossain
Telecoms watchdog Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has prepared a guideline to resolve the nagging interconnection issue blamed for stunting the growth of 'standard telecommunications' in the country.
The guideline has been sent to the authorities concerned for gazette notification, the chairman of the telecoms regulator said.
Standard telecommunications, according to UN telecoms body International Telecommunications Union (ITU), means mobile phones that allow
subscribers access to fixed phones side by side with cell phones of other operators.
"It was a vital issue to resolve the interconnection problem before the new PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) operators launch their service, " BTRC Chairman Syed Marghub Murshed told The Daily Star yesterday.
PSTN is a technical jargon for fixed phone connectivity.
The proposed guideline recommends that every incumbent fixed and cell-phone operator should have adequate interconnection from the commencement of service.
About 90 percent of the coun-
try's 2,300,000 cell phone connections only offer 'mobile-to-mobile' access due to lack of interconnection, a system that enables one telecoms operator to connect its subscribers to another through an exchange.
Bangladesh's teledensity is the lowest in South Asia with only 1.56 of 100 people having access to telecoms facility, according to the ITU. The figure rises to 2.15 per 100 phone if mobile-to-mobile connections are included. A standard phone should have both cellphone and mainframe fixed phone connectivity, according to ITU criteria.
The interconnection regime should be bilateral or multilateral and it should be under the supervision of BTRC, officials said.
All incumbent operators should comply with the technical standards set by the commission for interconnection. They should also comply with other access and interconnection obligations as stipulated by commission or as issued by the BTRC commissioner from time to time, the BTRC said in its PSTN licensing criteria.
Experts say the state monopoly in fixed line telephony, Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), does not have adequate interconnection to share with prospective fixed phone operators.
The country's cell-phone operators in the wake of a crippling interconnection scarcity opted for mobile-to-mobile telephones that still dominate the mobile telephony . Four cell-phone operators have around 2.30 million mobile phones, of which a little over 200,000 have mainframe fixed line access.
The interconnection scarcity forced private mobile phone operators to spend about $2 million on a separate tandem exchange to resolve the interconnection issue.
The telecoms regulator should encourage setting up of infrastruc-
ture companies before bringing private operators into fixed line telephony to thrash out the interconnection problem, said a telecoms expert.
The BTRC has awarded PSTN licence to Bashundhara Communi-cation & Network Limited (BCNL) while Westec Limited, QC Telecom Limited and Jalalabad Telecom Limited (JTL) have pre-qualified for the licence.
The telecoms market regulator may also think of awarding more licences for fixed phone service, technically referred to as PSTN, on both national and zonal basis, officials said.
Bangladesh's telecommunications market is characterised by low penetration and shortage of service, which too is generally of poor quality.
The immediate telecoms market for new entrants in Bangladesh is about 1.2 million fixed lines, which can be fed by the private sector, says a study.
The growth of mobile subscribers has averaged around 85 percent over the past three years, President of Ericsson South East Asia Mats Olsson said.
"The number of mobile subscribers is expected to reach around six to eight million by 2006," Olsson added.