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BTTB mobile service soft launch Dec 15

Mustak Hossain
The state-owned carrier, Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), is all set to emerge as the country's fifth tellular phone operator on December 15.
"We arc technically ready for tire soft launch of tire mobile phone service," a senior BTTB official told Tire Daily Star.
The soft or test launch will be staged in a simple ceremony with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia making a call from her office to Post and Telecommunications Minister Aminul Haque.
The first three digits of 'Teletalk', tire proposed name for the BTTB mobile phone service, will be '015',
but it will take several months yet before the service reaches the public subscribers.
"We hope to offer Teletalk connections by the end of first quarter of next year," said the official on condition of anonymity.
The BTTB is yet to have interconnection agreements with the other private cell phone operators, to discuss which an inter-operator meeting will beheld today.
Some 2.5 lakh out of a projected total of 10 lakh GSM (global system for mobile communication) connections would be available in the market in the first phase.
About 80 percent of the 2.5 lakh GSM phoneswill be prepaid and the
rest post-paid ones. The prepaid cards will be available in the market next year, when the board offersthe Teletalk services fo r public subscription.
The BTTB mobile phone project has been delayed for years, thanks mainly to red-tapism and a controversial bidding procedure that ended up in court.
The state telecoms operator has divided the project into two packages: Package-1 consisting of installation, testing and commissioning of the project in Dhaka and Sylhet regions, and Package-2 comprising the same in Chittagong, Bogra. and Khulna regions.
The BTTB awarded the $28.73 million (Tk 168.20 crore) contract for Package-1 to German telecoms giant Siemens Mobile Communications and the $23.72 million (Tk 138.88 crore) contract for Package-2 to Chinese Huawei Technologies.
The Teletalk service would first be available in the capital and a number of nearby districts, and would gradually expand across the country.
Of the 40 base stations the BTTB aims to set up in the capital and its suburbs by the end of December, it so far has installed 26 stations.
A limited company will be constituted soon to run the service. A policy guideline would also be drafted by the company, sources added.