News Title : Teletalk asked to seek advice on future investment

News Date : 2015-12-04

-Ishtiaq Husain
Post and Telecommunications Division has suggested the state-owned mobile operator Teletalk to seek experts’ opinion before investing TK4,600 crore for expansion of its 3G network across the country. The state-run cellphone company sought the amount of money for its 3G network expansion and the roll-out of 4G next year. Of the total amount, TK3,900 crore will come as foreign loan and the rest from local borrowing. “Over the last 15 years, each private operator invested into the telecom industry at least Tk15,000 crore on an average while Teletalk only around Tk3,000 crore. To tap the growing mobile communication market it required a huge amount of money,” a high-up of Teletalk said, asking not to be named. Considering previous record, the government is worried about Teletalk’s new investment plan. That is why it asked the mobile operator to go for experts’ suggestion of how to utilise the huge fund successfully, said a source in the Telecom Division. The government has also been trying to obtain a loan from China to modernise the Teletalk network for boosting digital connectivity. The state-run cellphone company also received loan from China earlier to roll out its 3G network in 2013, according a Teletalk source. Since Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is planning to float 4G auctions in 2016, Teletalk is also gearing for rolling out its 4G or LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network. The LTE is the standard for high-speed data wireless communication through mobile phones and data terminals. Gias Uddin Ahmed, managing director of Teletalk, told the Dhaka Tribune as the operator mulls a huge investment into 3G expansion and 4G roll-out, Telecom Division suggested taking experts’ opinion before investment. A few months ago, Teletalk sent its investment plan to Planning Commission, which sent the file to Telecom Division, asking the state-owned operator to fulfil some queries. “We have already met all queries. It will be sent to the Planning Commission very soon,” said an official of Telecommunications Division. After the Planning Commission approval, the file will be sent to External Relations Division (ERD) for searching fund. Meanwhile, Teletalk has planned to reach its network up to upazila and union levels to materialise the government’s ICT Vision 2021. A high official of the company informed the Dhaka Tribune that at the beginning of the 3G roll-out, it wanted to invest Tk2,000 crore, but finally it got only Tk678 crore. As of now, the country’s largest mobile operator Grameenphone has 12,000 Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) whereas Teletalk has only 3,800 BTSs across the country. Teletalk entered into the mobile market in 2005, but failed to make any profit as yet, because the company could not attract a significant number of subscribers due to its poor network and services.

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