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Landline industry growth falters

Star Business Report
The landline phone industry continues performing below the mark, recording a mere 0.7 percent rate of growth in new customer addition in the month of January.
The industry added 8,955 customers in January, taking the number of landline operators to 13,53,411, which was 13,44,456 a month ago.
As per the telecom watchdog statis-tics, the number of state-run Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Ltd (BTCL) customers remained unchanged at 8.72 lakh. Meanwhile, the largest private PSTN operator RanksTel added 2,500 customers to its network in January 2009.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) data shows that in January, Peoples Telecom Ltd added 2,296 customers in January to total 63,714, followed by Dhaka Phone's 929 to total 62,820.
Besides BTCL, all other private landline operators entered the telecom market in 2005, after the mobile telephony had become handy.
Along with the rapid expansion of mobile phones, the PSTN industry stakeholders blamed the discrepancies in the government policy for paralysing the sector.
"Several issues regarding the PSTN industry remain unsettled," said Masrur Newaz Waiz, head of operations of RanksTel, terming the industry “haphazard”.
"There is no hope for the sector," he said. “The industry's continuous downfall has become a bore for all."
A total of 11 private PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) companies are in operation in the rapidly growing Bangladesh telecom market.
The government permitted such private ventures to disseminate telecom services to the mass. However, the massive growth of the mobile sector under competitive price models, has put the PSTN sector in the dark.
"Customers prefer the mobile technology to the wire based telephony because of the ease of use," said a high official of BTCL. The government plans to go for wireless landline services soon.
The official said BTCL has the resources to provide telecom services among the mass at low costs. But because of a lack of market driven plans, the company still suffers.
Bangladesh's telecom penetration rate was 30 percent by the end of 2008, whereas mobile operators have pocketed a major portion of the industry'.