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90-day plan to bolster state-owned telecom companies

Muhammad Zahidul Islam
The telecom division is spearheading a move to bolster the performance of all five state-owned stakeholders of the industry under a 90-day plan that became effective yesterday.
As part of the plan, the country's lone state-owned mobile operator Teletalk will work to grab 6.5 lakh additional subscribers
in the next three months, while Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company will try to boost its countrywide usage by least 15 Gbps, on top of 33 Gbps now.
The companies set their own targets following a directive by Tarana Halim, state minister for telecom, after she took office two weeks ago. In the immediate feedback, all five companies came up with their plans.
“I want to see each company with their own targets, as it could be a good way of moving forward," she said at her office on Thursday.
Telephone Shilpa Sangstha (TSS) aims to assemble 1,700 laptops and 2,000 digital telephone sets in the next three months.
The TSS will also supply 95,000 electric metres to Dhaka Electric Supply Company, and produce 18,000 mobile chargers and 15,000 batteries for mobile phones, it said in its plan.
Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd plans to realise Tk 156.34 crore in outstanding bills from their subscribers.
The BTCL will launch triple-play services - voice, data and video - for 9,830 households in Gulshan and Banani areas in the capital, and will connect all their offices under a fibre optic network.
Teletalk currently has around 44 lakh active subscribers, and it is possible to reach the 50-lakh milestone in the given time, said Gias Uddin Ahmed, managing director of the mobile operator.
"We have a strong presence in the 3G market and will focus on it more,” he added.
Teletalk is also working in modernising its network and expanding its capacity.
The processes to enable bandwidth export are complete, and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company will move to
export similar resources to Nepal and Bhutan in the next 90 days, said Md Monwar Hossain, managing director of the company.
Bangladesh Submarine Cable has already reached a deal with an Indian company to export 10 Gbps bandwidth to the eastern part of the neighbour within August.
The lone submarine cable company also cut their bandwidth price, which will become effective this month for the wholesale market, and may impact endusers within a short time.
Bangladesh Cable Shilpa Ltd, another state-owned company, has targeted to increase its fibre optic cable production in different categories.
For Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, officials say all initiatives are in line with the regulator's usual activities.
The plans have already been discussed with the individual companies, and related directives were given. Additional assignments could be issued later, said Md Faizur Rahman Chowdhury, telecom secretary.
At a meeting on July 16, Tarana Halim outlined seven areas that she wants to focus on to strengthen the telecom sector. These include the Bangabandhu-1 satellite project, collection of outstanding dues, strengthening Teletalk, and making the internet more accessible in remote areas.