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Bangladesh should be ready for 4G: Mittal

Abdullah Mamun
Bangladesh could launch fourth-generation telecom service soon as the necessary 'ecosystem' will be here within a year, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Airtel, said yesterday.
Mittal was in Dhaka to attend an international conference organised by International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh. He is the vice-chairman of ICC.
"The ecosystem for Long Term Evolution is on the way now, and I think it will be developed within a year," he told The Daily Star in an interview.
An appropriate ecosystem or business environment is significant for new technology. For example, the availability and affordability of mobile devices would be highly conducive to the spread of 4Gservices.
"Investment in 4G tech' nology will depend on the policy decisions of the country's government. I de not know what the government is thinking."
As the 3G spectrum was released only last year, it is best to move with the current technology now to give a good data experience tc customers, Mittal said.
The telecom regulator o: Bangladesh plans to release
700 megahertz spectrum for 4G technology to mobile operators next year.
Mittal formed Bharti Airtel in India ir 1995, when the Indian governmen' opened the market for mobile services The company is now the world's fourth largest telecom operator with services ir 20 countries, including Bangladesh.
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In January 2010, Bharti had acquired 70 percent stake in Warid Telecom and subsequently launched Airtel in Bangladesh in December 2010. Later on, they acquired the rest 30 percent too.
"We are here in Bangladesh with India's largest investment in the telecom sector. Airtel here is growing in small but quick steps," he said.
Airtel will 'definitely' increase investment in Bangladesh's telecoms to compete with the other operators, he said.
Airtel has invested several hundred million dollars into Airtel Bangladesh and pumped in another $100 million last year for the development of the 3G network, Mittal said.
The company's data business growth is very strong, in double digits, but voice services are on the downward trend, following theglobal drift, he said.
Singapore's top mobile operator
SingTel owns 32.34 percent of Airtel. SingTel also owns 44.54 percent of Citycell in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is a very good place for telecom business as it has 16 crore people on plain lands, Mittal said. "But three to four operators should be perfect for the market, which the local market has already determined."
The market automatically moves towards the optimum, as shown by the growth and survival of the top four operators - Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel - that account for more than 93 to 94 percent of the market, Mittal said.
Of Bangladesh's total six mobile service operators, the two-bottom-of-the-pyramid operators are Citycell and the state-owned Teletalk.
It is one of the very efficient and highly productive ways to increase financial inclusion, with Africa being a fine example.
India is also doing well in mobile
financial services, he said.
"I have no doubt that it will benefit the cause of social financial inclusion in Bangladesh if the government allows telecom operators to provide mobile financial services,” he said.
Currently, only banks and their subsidiaries are allowed to provide mobile financial services in the country.
"It is now a globalised world and everybody everywhere should be connected through cables," Mittal said when asked about terrestrial connectivity between Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan.
Though he has made $7.8 billion through the telecom business, Mittal says he does not think about money.
"I did not make money; I have made a company which is now globally the fourth largest operator. And that is a result of the hard work of all the employees of the company."