GP launching 3G in Oct

Grameenphone subscribers will get 3G services at the beginning of the next month and there’s more – they won’t have to change their SIM cards for the high-speed access.

CEO Vivek Sood of the country’s largest mobile-phone operator made this announcement on Monday in a Dhaka hotel, a day after it picked up 10Mhz in 3G spectrum auction.

The services will be available to certain areas in Dhaka and Chittagong in October and be extended to the rest of Dhaka district, Narayanganj and Gazipur in November.

Sood was optimistic that by December, GP’s 3G services will be available in all seven divisional cities and in all districts by March next year.

The company’s CTO Tanveer Mohammad and CCAO Mahmud Hossain were present at the press conference.

The CTO said current subscribers can get the 3G facility without changing the SIM card – all they have to do is buy the 3G package.

Mohammad said it had been quite sometime that they had started the groundwork for the 3G service and so, it would be a seamless transition for the users.

State-run Teletalk launched the service last October but the SIM cards of its subscribers closed, which were later replaced free of cost at the customer care centres.

CEO Sood said their subscribers will be able to enjoy high-speed internet, live TV, lifestyle apps, video call, movie stream, online live games and many other facilities once the service is available.

Asked how the service would be offered and how much it would cost, he said they were yet to decide on that but promised a competitive pricing.

Sood said the packages will be tailored to the demands of all types of subscribers.

GP will pay the government the equivalent of $210 million for picking up 10 Mhz – the three other operators will pay the equivalent of $105 million each.

In current exchange rates, the government has netted Tk 40.81 billion through the auctions.

The bidders will have to pay the government 60 percent of the total payable amount within 30 days of the auction and the rest within 180 working days.

BRTC Vice-Chairman Giasuddin Ahmed told bdnews24.com in the evening that Grameenphone had paid three-fifths of the total $210 million to BTRC after the media call.

The regulator’s Chairman Shunil Kanti Bose had said the licences will be provided within seven to 10 days of the payments.

CEO Sood was sanguine that the new service will help them woo more subscribers. BRTC statistics indicate that GP had 44.6 million mobile-phone users at end of July 2013.

Three other mobile operators – Banglalinki, Robi and Airtel – also picked up 5Mhz each during Sunday’s 3G spectrum auctions.