News Title : New company for Bangabandhu-1 satellite on cards

News Date : 2016-01-03

-Muhammad Zahidul Islam
The telecom regulator has started its work on forming a separate public limited company which will look after all issues related to the country's first commercial and broadcast satellite Bangabandhu-1. The company will be named Bangladesh Satellite Communication Ltd. The telecom watchdog has recently applied to the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms to get approval for the new entity, said Md Golam Razzaque, project director of Bangabandhu-1 satellite. “Some work related to the formation of the company is still incomplete, which we hope will be done by February.” The memorandum and articles of association for the new company have already been drafted and will be finalised soon, officials of the satellite project said. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission announced an open-for-all competition for designing the logo of the company. Submissions for the contest must be made by January 20, and the winning entry will get Tk 50,000 in prize money, officials said. “We can have the logo and trademark for the satellite company drawn by any reputed firm in a short time. But we launched the competition to make the general public feel associated with the project,” Razzaque said. The final logo and trademark along with other papers will also be sent to the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, he said. The officials of the new company will be appointed soon after the formation of the new company, said Shahjahan Mahmood, chairman of BTRC. “We will also provide the new staff with proper training.” ADVERTISEMENT The government also has plans to launch at least two more satellites under the new company, and BTRC has already applied for three other orbital slots from the International Telecommunication Union, the specialised agency of the United Nations for information and communication technologies. In November 2015, the BTRC signed a $248 million deal with a French company—Thales Alenia Space—to design, build and launch Bangabandhu-1, which is set for launch in December 2017.

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