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Bangla Phone gets one more year for transmission services

Abdullah Mamun
The telecom ministry has given Bangla Phone, a fixed phone operator, one more year to offer voice and data transmission services.
Though the operator has been offering the transmission services for years through a special permission, the government has not provided it with a Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN) licence.
Bangla Phone, being a land-phone operator and an internet service provider at the same time, cannot get an NTT N licence, Telecom Secretary Md Abubakar Siddique said.
The operator has a countrywide network of optical fibre cable of 14,000 kilometres.
Mobile operators, ISPs, WiMax service providers or other financial and corporate entities get voice or data connectivity through NTTN companies. Siddique said Bangla Phone was given another year so that it can continue its services, as various companies such as private operator Robi and state-run Teletalk have contracts with it.
Though Bangla Phone has been seeking an NTTN licence for the last three years, neither the telecom regulator nor the ministry is giving a decision on it, said Amjad EI Khan, managing director of the operator.
Khan, referring to the NTTN licensing guideline, said all except mobile and WiMax operators are eligible for NTTN licences.
Bangla Phone was also asked last month not to lay optical fibre cable during the next one year, which the operator said goes against a High Gourt order delivered in 2007.
In line with another High Gourt order in 2009, the operator first obtained the special permission from the telecom regulator to offer voice and data transmission services.
Since 2009 Bangla Phone has been giving the services through extension of the permission. The High Gourt in April this year asked the government to give Bangla Phone a decision in a month whether it will get an NTTN licence.
Currently, there are only two NTTN operators -Fiber©Home and Summit Communications - who got licences in 2009. Since then no new licences were given though there is a huge demand for such services in the market.
There have been allegations that the government is not issuing new NTTN licences to give the existing operators an edge. The telecom secretary denied the allegation, while Arif Al Islam, managing director of Summit Communications, refused to comment.