Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has decided to award 23 more fixed phone licences to private operators.

Sources said eight out of the 23 licences have gone to four firms, which are majority owned by ruling party lawmakers.

The telecoms watchdog at a recent meeting approved the 23 applications to run fixed phone networks in the country's four zones -- south-east, south-west, northeast and north-west -- and notified the selected operators last Monday.

The four zones cover most of the

country excepting the central zone, which includes Dhaka City, Jinjira, Tongi, Savar and the district headquarters of Narayanganj and Gazipur. The central zone has remained off-limits to the current fixed phone licensing process due to a dispute with WorldTel, which had obtained a fixed phone licence for Dhaka in 2001.

The BTRC has asked the selected operators to submit a licence fee of Tk 20 million along with a Tk 50-million bank guarantee against performance for each licence within the next 30 days.

Of the 23 approved applications, Dhaka Telecom Limited, backed by

a minister, has been selected to have licences for all the four zones, BTRC officials said.

Other companies who have been approved for four licences each are Telebarta Limited, Peoples Telecom and National Telecommunications Network. GEP Telecom Limited, which is majority owned by a ruling party lawmaker, and another company named Keari Telecom bagged approval for two licences each.

Three companies -- OneTel Limited, a joint venture of Nitol Group, and Absco Limited, which belongs to a ruling party lawmaker, Dominus Telecom Limited and QC

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Telecom Limited -- qualified for one licence each. QC Telecom, which belongs to a policy- maker, had

received approval for another licence earlier in the first round.

In the first round, the BTRC had approved 10 licences for fixed phone networks. Of them eight licences have already been issued to four companies -- four licences to Bashundhara Communications Network Limited, two to Ranks Telecom Limited, a venture of Rangs Group, and one each to Jalalabad Telecom Limited and Bangla Phone, a joint venture of Nitol Group, Technoheaven Co Ltd and Bengal Communications International Inc.

Of the remaining two, Westec Limited, a project of an internet service provider, has deposited the licence fee while QC Telecom Ltd has not done so yet, BTRC officials said.