Shamim Ahamed
bdnews24.com Senior Correspondent

Dhaka, May 25 (bdnews24.com)—State-run mobile-phone operator Teletalk will start with providing 3G services to over 300,000 consumers in Dhaka City in July.

It was supposed to launch 3G services in the divisional headquarters first, but only people of the capital city would be get the services, for now, Teletalk Managing Director Mujibur Rahman told bdnews24.com.

"We'll provide 3G SIMs only for the consumers of the capital at first," he said.

Asked when the service will reach the other divisional cities, he hoped people in the divisional headquarters and other big cities will get it by October.

After Dhaka, the service would be launched in Chittagong, he added.

"We are taking technical preparations to give the service in the capital. We'll give 3G SIMs to the consumers in July after the preparations are complete."

He said they planned to sell 300,000- 500,000 3G SIMs in the capital.

The network plan to that end was finalised, he said. "We'll set up 700 special BTSs only for 3G. The BTSs in the capital have already been set up. Now the switching work is underway," he said.

The MD hoped Teletalk consumers will double after July from the 1.3 million at present.


The 3G mobile telecommunications are standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications by the International Telecommunication Union.

Once introduced in Bangladesh, it will make mobile telephony much more efficient, with high-speed data transfer facilitating users to watch mobile TV, make video calls, use GPS navigation and access many other services.

As the state-owned operator, Teletalk was given the opportunity to launch 3G experimentally before other operators. It was supposed to launch the service in March but had to defer the launch for 'some reasons'.

Asked about the delay, the Teletalk MD said a lot of time was needed to set up the equipment of the new technology.

The recently approved 3G licence draft says the spectrum would be auctioned in September this year. Teletalk will have to take the 3G spectrum spending the same amount of money like others even if it does not take part in the auction, it says.

Apart from Bangladesh's private operators Grameenphone, Banglalink, Citycell, Airtel and Robi, foreign companies will also be able to take part in the auction.

The Bangladeshi operators are currently giving 2G services.

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