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Published : 22 Jan 2025, 03:23 AM
The head of the telecom watchdog, BTRC, has left the nation guessing about the arrival of 5G mobile internet.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Chairman Emdad Ul Bari admitted, "I cannot provide a timeline at this moment regarding when we will or will not launch 5G."
For now, the promise of 5G remains in the air—much like the signals it's set to deliver.
Reforms have been suggested in the telecom sector, similar to other sectors of the country. In the meantime, the Network and Licensing Roadmap Restructuring Committee, led by BTRC, has started its work.
On Tuesday, following a meeting with the reform committee at the BTRC conference room, Chairman Bari, a retired major general, attended a press briefing.
There, he said that vague policies in the telecom sector and the frequent changes in policy – "morning and evening" policies – discourage investors.
However, the chairman's remarks did not clearly outline how the sustainability of policies could be ensured. During the discussion, the issue of reducing the influence of "intermediaries" in the telecom network also came up.
Asked when 5G might be launched, Chairman Bari responded: "We have already started working on 5G. We have also consulted with the industry. It is not possible for business operators alone to achieve this.
"This will require some governmental and regulatory initiatives. Changes in our network topology will be necessary to facilitate this. Keeping this in mind, we are proceeding with our work."
To launch 5G mobile internet service in the country, an auction for spectrum allocation was held in March 2022. At that time, the country’s four mobile operators purchased 190 MHz spectrum for $1.23 billion.
The country’s two leading operators, Grameenphone and Robi, each spent Tk 33.61 billion to purchase 60 MHz spectrum in the 2600 band. Banglalink bought 40 MHz spectrum in the 2300 band for Tk 22.41 billion.
Meanwhile, the state-owned operator TeleTalk purchased 30 MHz spectrum in the 2300 band for Tk 16.81 billion at that time.
During the auction, BTRC announced that operators would need to launch 5G services within six months.
However, it took BTRC nearly two years to formulate the necessary policies for these services. The policy was finally published in February 2024.
According to the policy, operators with 5G licences would be able to launch the service within a year.
By the start of the second year, all four operators would need to achieve the capability to provide full-scale 5G services. These include services like smart cities, smart homes, intelligent transportation systems, smart grids, and several other significant applications.
Now, a year has almost passed—what has happened with 5G?
The BTRC chairman said, "I cannot delve into the legacy issues. I cannot answer that. However, the spectrum in the 2300 and 2600 bands is still allocated for 5G. We are preparing to auction the 700 MHz band by June."
In September 2021, during a discussion in New York, the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s son and ICT advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy announced that 5G would be launched by the end of that year.
In December of that year, the then telecoms minister Mustafa Jabbar officially announced the experimental rollout of 5G in six locations through state-owned entities TeleTalk and BTCL.
Mobile operators have been saying that significant investments are required to expand the 5G network. However, they do not see much commercial potential for 5G in Bangladesh.
WHO ARE INTERMEDIARIES IN THE NETWORK?
BTRC Chairman Emdadul Bari has announced plans to "eliminate intermediaries" from the country’s existing telecommunication network.
He said: "Our telecommunications network is currently fragmented at various levels. These layers have emerged over time, sometimes for logical reasons, and sometimes not. At this moment, we see that many layers in the network have become intermediaries.
"Instead of reducing transmission costs, they are increasing them. By reviewing these areas, we aim to create a simple, capable, efficient, and cost-effective network, where intermediaries will either not exist or be minimised."
However, the BTRC boss did not clarify who these intermediaries are.
Industry insiders say that in the early days, mobile operators built their own towers, laid fibre-optic cables, and handled all operations independently. However, after the Awami League government came to power, new licensing categories were introduced for towers and fibre-optics. As a result, mobile operators now have to rely on third parties for towers, optical fibre, and other infrastructure.
Operators allege that these third-party companies are running monopolies in these areas.
OVER 3,000 LICENCES IN 29 CATEGORIES
Currently, there are over 3,000 licences issued across 29 categories, with allegations that many were issued purely on political considerations. When asked how BTRC plans to reform this, Chairman Emdadul Bari said: "We are operating within the industry's timeline. A licence means a commitment, and investments have been made based on it. Our major challenge is to transition from the current licensing policy.
"We are now looking at a timeline where many major licences issued around 2011-2012 will expire in 2026 and 2027. This gives us an opportunity. We are working on utilising this timeline to implement reforms during licence renewal."
WHY AREN’T GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK INVESTING?
Explaining why major companies such as Google (Alphabet) and Facebook (Meta) are not keen on investing in the country, the BTRC boss said: "Companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook do not set up data centres here. One reason is their concerns about policies. Also, the lack of robust technological infrastructure is a major factor.
"They require large, robust data centres, which have not been established here. This also demands international connectivity. Questions remain about whether our connectivity is reliable enough."
WHO ENSURES POLICY SUSTAINABILITY?
In response to a question about ensuring sustainable policies, the BTRC chairman remarked:
"One of the main obstacles to investment is the lack of clear and sustainable policies. Many policies are unclear and change frequently, sometimes even twice a day.
"As a result, major global companies become hesitant about investment guarantees. They have repeatedly raised this issue, and it remains a significant concern for us."
When asked how BTRC intends to ensure sustainable policies and prevent changes when governments change, the chairman said: "Whether policies are sustainable or not is the government’s responsibility. However, as advisors to the government, we make recommendations. We emphasise viewing policies from the consumers' perspective to ensure their sustainability."
FOCUS ON BROADBAND
Highlighting the importance of broadband in the country’s internet services, the BTRC chairman said: "Currently, most of our communication load falls on the spectrum (mobile bandwidth). Discussions have been held on how we can reduce this load on the spectrum and transition to fixed broadband."
He added: "Currently, only 7-8 percent of internet usage comes from fixed broadband, while 92-93 percent relies on mobile networks. Globally, as significant digital services emerge, reliance on broadband increases.
“However, in our country,” added Bari, “there are many barriers to broadband. We need to build a network capable of overcoming these challenges."
CONSUMER FEEDBACK
The reform committee will also seek input from the public. Consumers and the general public can send their suggestions to [email protected].
Chairman Bari said: "After reviewing everything, we hope to prepare a roadmap by March and submit it to the government."
