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Legal battle holds back private land phones in Dhaka

Verdict on BTRC-WorldTel case likely today

MUSTAK HOSSAIN
A long-drawn legal battle between the telecoms watchdog and UKbased WorldTel deprives thousands of prospective subscribers of receiving private fixed phone connections in the capital.
Watchdog BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission), which has so far allocated licences to 19 private PSTN (public switched telephone network) operators in four zones, cannot provide licences for Dhaka zone, thanks to the case.
WorldTel, which obtained a licence in 2001 to launch 3,00,000 telephones on build-operate-own
basis in the capital, went to court after the BTRC curtailed the company's co-exclusivity with the state-owned Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) to allow more private PSTN players.
After it lost the case in the High Court Division, WorldTel appealed to the Appellate Division to retain its co-exclusivity, WorldTel representative Nayeem Chowdhury said.
The Appellate Division may give a verdict today.
The demand for fixed phones in the capital is estimated at 10 lakh while the registered demand with the BTTB is about two lakh, sources said.
The BTTB cannot provide con-
nections due to lack of required infrastructure.
There is a huge pending demand for 30,000 telephone lines only in the north zone of Dhaka. Over 4,000 demand notes have been issued for giving connections under Gulshan telephone exchange but it has no connection left for any new subscriber. Besides, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar exchange has a pending demand for 2,000 phones.
Everyday the BTTB authorities receive hundreds of applications from intending subscribers and issue demand notes although there is an instruction not to issue any, BTTB sources said.
The BTTB will not be able to give
any connection in the next three months, they added.
When contacted, one BTRC official said although the new PSTN companies, which have already launched services in Chittagong and Sylhet regions, are capable of offering connections to subscribers in the capital, the telecoms watchdog cannot allocate licence due to the case.
"We can launch the service in Dhaka through wireless local loop (WLL) technology within a month but we need a licence for that," said Zakaria Swapan, chief operating officer of RanksTel, one of the new PSTN operators.