Bangladesh plans 5G test run in 2021, says Sajeeb Wazed Joy

Bangladesh plans to launch fifth generation mobile phone networks experimentally by the end of 2021, Sajeeb Wazed Joy has said.

The ICT affairs adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina revealed the plan during a roundtable in New York on Tuesday.

Joy said Bangladesh does not lack capability or bandwidth, and it has optical fibre networks, but the country faces challenges as marginal users use mobile phones, not fixed lines for the internet.

Bangladesh needs to use 5G connections widely because of the dense population and additional spectrum will be given through auction. So, it is freeing more spectrums for the mobile operators, he said.

He hopes using the additional spectrum will help the telecom operators launch 4G in the remote rural areas.

Bangladesh currently has 4G networks and the 5G networks will make the mobile internet faster.

The government is trying to solve the internet connection issues in the remote areas by using 4G and 5G together, Joy said.  

The US-Bangladesh Business Council organised the roundtable during Hasina’s New York tour to join the 76th UN General Assembly.

Joy, the prime minister’s son, said Bangladesh launched Know Your Customer or KYC services in the past two years to ensure immediate payments through bank accounts. Previously, it took up to two days to complete the payments.

Joy said the process to launch some other digital payment systems experimentally was underway. They include one to allow the mobile financial service providers to interconnect.