National Telecommunications Policy gets Cabinet nod, targets mobile phones for all by 2021

The government has approved the National Telecommunications Policy, 2016, which hopes to make mobile phones available to everyone by 2021, the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence.

The Cabinet cleared the draft of the policy to be in force for the next 10 years at a meeting on Monday chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told reporters after the meeting that the new policy would be an amalgam of the Telecommunications Policy, 1998, National ICT Policy, National Broadband Policy and Long Distance Telecommunications Services Policy.

The policy has set short-, mid- and long-term goals.

Short-term goals are to raise teledensity to 90 percent from the current 80 percent, internet coverage to 45 percent from 34 percent, and mobile or broadband coverage to 20 percent from 7 percent by 2018.

Other short-term goals include extending optical fibre networks to districts, Upazilas, and unions, and having high-speed wireless broadband services in every Upazila.  
 
The long-term goals include increasing teledensity to 100 percent, expanding internet coverage to 65 percent and broadband coverage to 40 percent, and connecting all unions to optical fibre network by 2021.