Expatriate Bangladeshi 2000

Linking Individuals, Regions, Ideas, and Actions

 

Brief Profile on Telecommunication in Bangladesh

Note:

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunication (MOPT) is likely to place the National Telecommunications Act, 2000 before the cabinet soon . It would replace the century old Telegraph Act, 1885 and Wireless Act, 1933, which have become redundant in the light of present day telecommunication needs and introduction of newer technologies.
As a result, subscribers of various telecommunication services have been facing problems over the years. The new law would see the BTTB work only as a public sector operator side by side with private operators like cellular phone companies, the source said.

The act would open up the telecommunications sector to competition and help improve quality of service, the source said. It will also put an end to the supervisory authority of MOPT and the monopoly of state-run Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) by empowering the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC), a separate autonomous regulatory commission in character, to work independently.

This Report is compiled by

Tanvir Chowdhury on Dec 1st , 2000

Global Amitech ( NFB )

Web : http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news


BACKGROUND

After independence of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh in 1971, Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone (T&T) Department was created under the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications with a view to run the telecommunication services on commercial basis. The Bangladesh T & T Department was converted into a corporate body in 1976. In pursuance of Ordinance No. XII promulgated by the President of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh on 24th February, 1979 The Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB) came into existence.

At this moment BTTB is providing basic telecommunication services through out the country and also providing carriers to communicate with the outside world. BTTB is also providing some value added services as Dial-Up and Leased Line Internet services, International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) services, Digital Subscribers Line (DSL), Telex Services and Packet Switch Data Network (PSDN) services.


ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF BTTB

Bangladesh T & T Board is a government establishment under the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication (MOPT). The Board is headed by the Chairman with 4(Four) full time members and 3(Three) part time members under him. The government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh gives their appointment.


REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

The Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications (MOPT) holds the responsibility of sector regulation. The Telegraph Act of 1985 is the primary law governing the sector and granted the government exclusive power to establish and provide all telecommunications services and products. The Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1933 governs the operation of one way Radio Communications, Paging and Radio services. The BTTB Ordinance of 1979 provided BTTB the monopoly rights and powers for issuing license for telecommunications and wireless services. In October, 1995 Government of Bangladesh (GOB) amended the BTTB Ordinance, 1979 and transferred the regulatory authority from BTTB to MOPT. Now MOPT is in process of forming a regulatory body naming Telecommunication Regulatory Board (TRB).

Presently MOPT is the principal telecommunications policy maker. Other institutions, such as Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission are also involved in policy making process.


TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN BANGLADESH – GENERAL

Basic Fact on Bangladesh Telecommunication

Description

Unit

Total Telephone in use in Bangladesh

6,02986

BTTB ( T&T)

4, 74,322

BTTB –Urban

411,427

BTTB – Rural

57,077

Private Telecom

1, 28, 664

Tele density

0.50 %

Cellular Users

212,200 (April ,00)

Card Phone in Use

1, 381

Public Call office

630

Telex Subscribers

1,600

Paging & radio Trunking Subscribers

7000

International Voice circuit :

2,107

International Trunk Exchange

3

Total International Circuit

3936

Nation Wide Dialing ( NWD) Circuit

21930

Switching

61%

Transmission

75%

Telecommunication Equipment Manufacturing facilities

Telephone Shilpha Sangstha (TSS) , at Tongi, and Bangladesh Cable Shilpha (BCS) Ltd. at Khulna

V Sat

50 ISPs ( Plus private Organizations )

Ground Satellite Station

4

Network Digitalization

 

Expected demand for Telephone

1, 72,095

Source : BTTB 1999

Table I. Telecommunication Operators in Bangladesh

Name of Operator

License Granted

Function

Bangladesh Rural Telecom Authority (BRTA)

1989

Establishment, Operation and Maintenance of Digital Telephone Exchanges in 200 Thanas.

Sheba Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd.

1989

Rural Telecom Services in 199 Thanas and Cellular Mobile Radio Telephone Services.

Pacific Bangladesh Telephone Ltd. (PBTL)

1989

Cellular Radio Telephone Services.

Grameen Phone (GP)

Consortium

1996

Cellular Mobile Radio Telephone Services.

Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh (TMIB)

1996

Cellular Mobile Radio Telephone Services.

Bangladesh Telecom (Pvt.) Limited (BTL)

1989

Paging, Radio Trunking and Riverine Telecom services

 


AVAILABLE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES

At present following services are being offered by BTTB:

BASIC TELEPHONY

At the end of 1998-99 fiscal year Bangladesh T & T Board had 631 Telephone Exchanges with a total capacity of 4,74,322 lines. BTTB started operating digital local exchanges after installation of six NEC-NEAX 61E exchanges in the Dhaka Telecom Region Network in 1990-91 fiscal year with initial total capacity of 26,000 lines. Upto 1998-99 financial year fifteen (six NEC-NEAX 61E exchanges, seven ALCATEL E-10 exchanges and two ITALTEL exchanges), twelve (nine ALCATEL E-10 exchanges and three ITALTEL exchanges), ten (four ALCATEL E-10 exchanges, three GDT exchanges and three ITALTEL exchanges) and seven (One ALCATEL E-10 exchange, two ITALTEL exchanges and four ZTE exchanges) local digital exchanges were installed in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi Telecom Regions respectively. Exchange status of Analog and Digital telephone lines are given on Table II.

Table II. BTTB Telephone Exchange Status

(As of 30th June, 1999)

Region

Type

Number of

Exchanges

Capacity

Connection

Pending

Demand

Dhaka

Analog

24

74,000

70,689

1812

Digital

15

173,529

169,836

69,430

Chittagong

Analog

31

22,720

18,632

8,542

Digital

12

71,000

63,435

2,802

Khulna

Analog

36

25,400

22,201

8,962

Digital

10

26,700

21,347

3,648

Rajshahi

Analog

17

19,400

18,274

5,016

Digital

07

17,272

12,213

2,980

Country Total

Analog

108

141,520

129,796

75,842

Digital

44

288,501

266,831

78,860

Table III. BTTB Network Switching

Type of Exchange

Number of Exchange

Equipped Capacity (No of Lines )

Working Lines

Automatic Digital

37

290 000

272 337

Automatic Analog

112

135 000

120 250

Manual C.B

136

21 695

19 786

Magneto

343

21 172

19 052

Total

624

474 867

431 435

Exchange Fill

   

90. 85 %

Digitalization Rate

   

62.54 %

Source : BTTB , 1999


PUBLIC TELEPHONE SERVICES

Years ago Coin Boxes were used in the urban areas and land line wireless Public Call Offices (PCOs) in the rural areas to provide public telephone services. Card Telephones were introduced to wipe off the degraded service quality of Coin Boxes and PCOs. By November 2000 about 1400 Card phone booths were installed in different parts of the country. While all card phones have NWD facilities where as around 750 of them have got ISD facility. Due to higher accessibility and better technology these Card phones have been widely accepted by public throughout the country. Almost all the thanas have been covered by the Card phone service. Programs are under consideration to extend this service to village level.


TELEX SERVICES

The first digital Telex exchange in Bangladesh was established in May 1981. In December 1999, there were three fully digital Storage Program Controlled (SPC) telex exchanges working in Dhaka. They were

    • NEDIX (510 AS) having capacity of 960 line supplied by NEC, Japan
    • NEDIX (510A) with a capacity of 1,500 lines supplied by NEC, Japan
    • ELTEX-II with a capacity of 6,048 lines obtained from Saudi Arabia

By applying Time Division Multiplexing technique six districts namely Narayangonj, Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna, Jessore and Bogra had been brought under the switching control of this Gate Way Exchange by installing Tele-Printer Exchanges (TPXs) in the said districts. This NEDIX (510A) exchange was working as a tandem exchange as well as an international telex exchange.

In January, 2000 BTTB in a joint venture with British Telecom introduced Global Telecom Service (GTS), in which the Telex Exchange will be located at Birmingham England with a Multiplexer at Dhaka and other places outside Dhaka where BTTB is providing Telex Services. By doing so, maintenance cost has been drastically reduced. This system also has the added advantage that it requires only two international circuit whereas earlier on, it required around 280 international circuit to provide the international telex gateway.


TELEGRAPH (GENTEX)

GENTEX Service was introduced in 1989. The number of offices providing GENTEX services are at present 135. Through this service the telegraph offices are inter connected.


NATIONWIDE DIALING

By providing an integrated nationwide telecommunications facility all the major cities, towns and growth centers are interconnected. This inter-connectivity is achieved through 8 Trunk Automatic Exchanges (TAXs) and a number of Microwave (MW), Ultra High Frequency (UHF) and Very High Frequency (VHF) links.


TRANSMISSION LINKS

Because of the nature of the terrain, transmission links of Bangladesh consist of Microwave and UHF/VHF systems. At present there are six major Microwave links in Bangladesh. The Thana to District headquarters links are almost 100% digital, comprising of 2-Mbps system that form the backbone of rural telecommunication.

Table-IV. Description of Major Transmission Links

Link

Type

Capacity

Bit Rate

Maker

Dhaka – Chittagong

Analog

1800

 

NEC

Dhaka – Khulna

Digital

1920

140 MB

FUJITSU

Dhaka – Sylhet

Digital

1920

140 MB

ALCATEL

Dhaka – Bogra

Digital

1920

140 MB

ALCATEL

Kustia - Bogra – Atwari

Analog

960

 

FUJITSU

Khulna - Barisal – Patuakhali

Digital

480

34 MB

JRC

A new Optical Fiber transmission route (STM-16) between Dhaka and Chittagong is under installation, which is due to be completed within February 2001.


TRUNK AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE (TAX)

There are 8 Trunk Automatic Exchanges (TAXs) at different locations of the country. The total equipped capacity is 31,884 circuits. The detail of these Exchanges are as described in Table V.

Table V. Present Status of TAXs

TAX

Manufacturer

Capacity

Working Circuits

Dhaka

NEC

9361

6416

Dhaka

ALCATEL

6000

5200

Chittagong

NEC

1603

1057

Chittagong

ALCATEL

3000

2937

Khulna

NEC

2509

1333

Khulna

ALCATEL

3000

1969

Bogra

NEC

1911

1341

Rajshahi

ALCATEL

3000

773

Sylhet

ALCATEL

1500

904

 


OVERSEAS COMMUNICATION SERVICES

There are four satellite earth stations with three international Gate Way Exchanges through which international telecommunication service is provided in Bangladesh.


INTERNATIONAL TRUNK EXCHANGE (ITX)

An automatic digital ITX, with working capacity (as on 05.07.99) of 1,049 trunk circuits of which 301 are International & 748 Domestic Circuits, installed in Dhaka in 1983. The second & third ITX were commissioned in 1995 in Dhaka. At present, the working capacity of the second ITX is 3,047 out of which 1,337 are international & 1,710 domestic circuits and that of third one is 840 out of which 420 are international & 420 domestic circuits. So the total number of working international circuit is 3,936. Operator assisted overseas trunk calls are provided by these exchanges. International direct dialing is also provided to the subscribers through digital exchanges, installed in different places of Bangladesh. There are also remote operator assisted terminals at four other locations in the country.


SATELLITE COMMUNICATION FACILITIES IN BANGLADESH

Ground Satellite Station ( Connecting to 181 Countries )

Bangladesh has four satellite earth station. One standard 'A' type station is situated at South-Eastern part of the country, one 'B' type earth station is situated 33 miles away from capital city Dhaka. The third one, a digital standard 'A' station has been set up at Mohakhali in Dhaka, the fourth earth station has been installed at Sylhet by British Telecom.

Table VI. Description of Satellite Earth Stations

Earth Station

Standard

Position

Carrier

Voice

VFT

Data

Total

Betbunia

A

60° E

FDM, IDR

342

2

3

347

Talibabad

B

60° E

IDR, SCPC

396

3

0

399

Mohakhali

A

66° E

IDR

1249

6

12

1267

Sylhet

F

63° E

IDR

120

0

0

120

 


SOME CURRENT & ON GOING PROJECTS OF BTTB

Some up coming projects BTTB has taken .Under these projects analog telephone exchanges will also be replaced gradually.

Projects recently completed or near completion:

Switching

Total 467,450 lines will be installed under these ongoing projects.

Project Description

Funding source

138,500 lines capacity Dhaka Telephone Project (Phase-2)

JBIC/OECF

50,000 lines under 200 K

KL telephone bond funding of GOB(government of Bangladesh )

13,700 lines under 3 TAX Project (local exchange portion)

3 TAX Project (local exchange portion) through GOB fund.

16,050 lines under 10 districts program

GOB fund.

4,500 lines under 4 Upazillas inb Gazipur District

GOB fund.

2,700 lines under 77 Upazilla program

GOB fund.

216,00 lines under Project for Installation of Digital Telephone exchange in different district towns project

Suppliers credit from People's Republic of China. ( CMEC China )

   

Source BTTB , 1999

In addition BTTB has prepared few PPs/PCPs for the following projects which additional telephone exchanges will be installed.

Project Description

Funding Source

74,000 lines under project for installed of digital exchanges in Chittagong, Khulna and Sylhet.

Suppliers Credit

50,000 lines WLL system in Dhaka

 

200,000 lines modern digital exchanges in Greater Dhaka

 

Source BTTB , 1999

Transmission

Present ongoing projects for Trunk Automatic Exchanges

BTTB has taken two projects for installation of TAX/Local exchanges. Under the project titled "Installed of 3 Tax cum local exchange" through GOB finance BTTB has installed three TAXl at Barisal, Comilla and Kushtia. Eight TAX/Sub-TAXs will be installed at Mymensing, Rangamati, Noakhali, Faridpur, Jessore, Dinajpur, Rangpur and Pabna against a separate project titled "Installation of telephone exchange at different district headquarters" under supplier's credit from PR China.

Present on going projects for national long distance transmission links

BTTB is currently implementing some transmission links on optical fibre with latest SDH digital multiplexing and other transmission links on digital radio with SDH and PDH multiplexing.

Optical Fiber Transmission

Optical fibre transmission links are under implementation through three projects viz. "Dhaka-Chittagong Optical fibre project" under French protocol. "Installation of 200 KL telephone lines in Bangladesh" under telecom bond/GOB ( Govt of Bangladesh ) finance and "Installation of digital telephone exchanges at different district towns" under suppliers credit from PR China and number of links in those projects are 8, 4 and 16 respectively. With the completion of above projects Dhaka and Chittagong, Dhaka and Bogra will be connected through high capacity optical fibre links resulting in improved telecom services between different parts of the country.

Microwave

Digital microwave long distance transmission links will be implemented through three projects namely "Installation of digital telephone exchanges at different district towns" under suppliers credit from PR China, "Installation of 200KL telephone lines in Bangladesh" under telecom bond/GOB(( Govt of Bangladesh ) finance and "Dhaka-Chittagong optical fibre project" under French protocol and the number of microwave hops under those projects are 1920 and 3 respectively.

Most of the district town will be under digital transmission after completion of the first phase of above projects .

BTTB’s Voice traffic ( Minutes):

BTTB’s tumbling international call traffic has drastically deteriorated the financial health of the country’s one of the largest contributor to the exchequer.

BTTB’s 97 per cent revenue is generated from telephony. More than 70 per cent of telephone revenue comes from the international calls. Incoming has always been higher than the outgoing international traffic in BTTB’s network (See the Table :Chart 1 A ).

Therefore, BTTB has been consistently earning foreign exchange from the overseas carriers through the difference of higher volume incoming international call traffic.

Table VII: BTTB’s International Voice Traffic Data (Minutes)

 

1994-95

1995-96

1996-97

1997-98

1998-99

Incoming

89,285,579

115,021,620

159,495,408

197,423,078

187,284,651

Outgoing

19,407,557

23,202,777

37,739,477

44,424,515

45,112,586

Difference

69,878,022

91,818,843

121,755,931

152,998,563

142,172,065

                     Source: BTTB Annual Report of 1998-99

Fall of nearly 11 million minutes during 1998-99 than 1997-98 had dried up BTTB’s cash flow. Such reduction in international traffic has occurred despite BTTB adding 240 satellite circuits in 1999.

This setback is reflected on the negligible 0.72 per cent annual growth in BTTB’s total earning during 1998-99. BTTB’s annual revenue growth rate had been 16 per cent during the pervious two fiscal years (1996-97 and 1997-98).

Experts believe that the state-owned telecom monopoly has been evidently loosing its lucrative overseas calls to the growing popularity of Internet telephony.

International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has forecast that making phone calls using Internet will dominate 25 to 40 per cent of all international voice traffic by 2004.

The ITU Secretary General’s draft report on Internet telephony confirms that the volume of global call traffic over Internet has already far exceeded the voice traffic that travels over the traditional telephone network.

This report also refers to the potentials of Internet telephony, as projected by various operators and analysts.

Deltathree.com says that Internet telephony would generate 16 billion minutes of international traffic in 2000 and will account for some 35 per cent of the total by 2005.

Tarifica estimates that more than 40 per cent of all international calls will be Internet telephony by 2004.

International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the Internet telephony market generated 2.7 billion minutes of traffic in 1999 and will expand to around 135 billion minutes, with revenues of 19 billion US dollars, by 2004.

IDC further projected that the Internet telephony market in the Asia Pacific region would grow to some 3000 per cent to 6.9 billion dollars by the year 2005, from about 213 million dollars today.

China and India are the highly potential markets for Internet telephony, while it is already thriving in the big markets like Australia, South Korea and Singapore.

In China, the Ministry of Information Industry has estimated that the Internet telephony business will be worth some 12 billion dollars by 2004.

The Indian government decided recognising the convergence between Internet and telephony. The proposed Convergence Act will replace the existing regulation, which differentiates between voice and data.

State-run Pakistan Telephone Company Ltd. (PTCL) has initiated a pilot project on Internet telephony. Last October, the PTCL finalised selecting a private company in this regard.

Although the Internet telephony is still prohibited, the Nepalese government has been closely working with the ITU on Internet telephony. According to ITU, the Sri Lanka and Bhutan has no restriction over this fast growing popular technology.

The standpoint of Bangladesh on Internet telephony remains unclear. The National Telecom Policy of 1998 has not prohibited it whereas the government is yet to recognise Internet telephony as a telecom solution.

The market has, however, been showing no respect to the government’s indecision. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer cheaper international calls through Internet (Source: Financial Express)

Table-VIII describes the growth of International Voice Circuit.

Table-VIII. Growth of International Voice Circuit

Month

Circuits

June, 1993

416

June, 1994

566

June, 1995

954

June, 1996

1267

June, 1997

1609

June, 1998

1841

June, 1999

2081

June, 2000

2190

 

 

 

Table-IX expresses the growth of international traffic in number of paid-minutes.

Table-IX. Paid Minutes in International Circuits

Year

1994-95

1995-96

1996-97

1997-98

1998-99

Outgoing

19.40

23.20

37.74

44.42

45.11

Incoming

89.29

115.02

159.49

197.42

187.28

Total

108.69

138.22

197.23

241.85

232.40

 

OVERSEAS COMMUNICATION THROUGH MICROWAVE

There are two microwave links, one is Dhaka - Calcutta the other is Dhaka - Nepal, for overseas communication. Dhaka - Calcutta link has 59 voice circuit and one VFT channel. On the other hand Dhaka - Nepal Microwave link has 12 voice channels.

DATA COMMUNICATION SERVICE

PACKET SWITCH DATA NETWORK (PSDN)

Bangladesh T & T Board has installed an X.25 Packet Switched Data Network at Dhaka & 5 other cities namely Chittagong, Rajshahi, Bogra, Khulna, and Sylhet. This network caters services for three types of subscribers. These are X.25 leased line, X.28 leased and X.28 dial up subscriber.

Inter-city connectivity has been provided through Microwave (existing analog and digital) and international gateway connectivity has been obtained through Mohakhali Satellite Earth Station taking one 64 kbps circuit with VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited), New Delhi. At present the number of subscribers for different type of services are as in Table X.

Table X. List of PSDN Subscribers

Sl. No.

Type of Subscribers

Number of Subscribers

1.

X.25 Leased Line

50

2.

X.28 Leased Line

30

3.

X.28 Dial Up

20

INTERNET SERVICES

BTTB is also providing Dial-Up and Leased Line Internet services at Dhaka and four other major cities namely Chittagong, Bogra, Khulna and Sylhet. The Internet access is established via Mohakhali Satellite Earth Station using a backbone capacity of 512 Kbps with Teleglobe, Canada. Process is under way to take another 2 Mbps backbone with C & W, UK. The target is to increase internet backbone speed to 8 Mbps within June, 2001.

The inter-city connectivity is established through 128 Kbps Digital Data Network Link. Only Chittagong is connected with Analog Link. But as soon as the Dhaka-Chittagong Optical Fiber Link is finished Chittagong too will be connected using Digital Data Network.

BTTB has 108 dial-up telephones in Dhaka and 8 telephone lines each at all other places outside Dhaka. At present total number of subscribers is about 3500 of which 3200 are in Dhaka, 100 at Bogra and 200 at Khulna. Commercial services at Chittagong and Sylhet are yet to be offered. But, subscribers of Dhaka can enjoy services from all other places using the same account.

DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER LINE (DSL) SERVICES

Very recently BTTB has installed DSL nodes at 5 exchanges in Dhaka and 4 other places namely Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna and Bogra. Through this network BTTB is providing high speed point to point data line (64 Kbps to 2048 Kbps) using voice grade copper cables. Already some of the Banks and Corporate Offices have taken this line. The performance of this network is very much satisfactory.

INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE LEASED CIRCUIT (IPLC)

BTTB is also providing high-speed international point to point data circuit for corporate networking through out the.


PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES

GROWTH OF TELEPHONE IN BANGLADESH

The growth of telephone exchange capacity in Bangladesh in the last five years was on average only 40,000 lines per year. The recorded pending demand of telephone has been increasing at a faster rate than the telephone expansion rate. Table-IX shows the trend of telephone growth in Bangladesh from 1994-95 to 1999-00 financial years. Moreover, the pending demand noted here in the table is the expressed demand. But, there is no doubt that many people do not express their demand because of known hardship of getting a telephone number. Therefore, the actual demand is really much more than the numbers expressed here.

Forcast:

Table XI. Projected Demand : Expected number of telephone to be in use in Bangladesh

By Year 2002

800,000 units

By Year 2005

1600,000 units (16lakhs )

By Year 2010

3200,000 units

Source : BTTB 1999

Table XII. BTTB -Performance during the period 1997-1999

Name Of Items

Position in 1

1997 –98

Addition in

1998-99

Position in

1997-99

Telephone Capacity

  1. Urban
  2. Rural

463,185

412,479

50,706

9,329

2009

7320

468,504

411,427

57,077

Card Phone 1283

1283

39

1367

OTD

800

-------

800

NWD Circuits

15384

-------

22110

Over Seas Circuits

1580

261

2051

Internet Subscribers

--------

1200

1200

Source BTTB 1999

Table XIII. Telephone Growth and Pending Demand in Bangladesh

Year

Exchange

No. of Exchange

Exchange Capacity

Telephone Connection

Pending Demand

1994-95

Manual

476

32879

26963

12242

 

Analog

133

209150

197482

1044945

 

Digital

12

72951

62160

37300

 

Total

621

314980

286605

154037

1995-96

Manual

479

36664

29765

8242

 

Analog

129

179890

161463

57720

 

Digital

21

171215

124853

80892

 

Total

629

368729

316081

145854

1996-97

Manual

476

39812

32714

14943

 

Analog

114

140920

132711

65554

 

Digital

35

259759

202592

47041

 

Total

625

440491

368017

127438

1997-98

Manual

479

42867

34607

15336

 

Analog

112

135040

125627

66078

 

Digital

37

284666

252337

54006

 

Total

628

462573

412607

135420

1998-99

Manual

479

44301

36341

17394

 

Analog

108

141520

129796

75842

 

Digital

44

288501

266831

78860

 

Total

631

474322

432968

172096

1999-00

Manual

480

48652

40040

23055

 

Analog

110

139790

118421

61779

 

Digital

54

401557

313314

96691

 

Total

644

540046

471775

181525

It is observed from the Table that number of Analog Exchanges is decreasing year by year because of conversion of some of the Analog Exchanges into Digital Exchanges and the number of Manual Exchanges has come to a standstill. Though increase in number of Digital Exchanges is a positive sign, yet the increase is far from meeting the growing demand of the citizens.

 

PROGRAM FOR INSTALLATION OF DIGITAL TELEPHONE LINES UNDER BTTB

Because of resource and other constraints BTTB has taken some programs in phases to install new digital telephone exchanges both for expansion of exchange capacity and to replace some of the old analog exchanges. Table XIV shows some programs which are already undertaken by BTTB.

 

Table-XIV. Program for installation of Digital Telephone Exchanges by BTTB

Sl. No.

Name of the Program

Telephone Exchange Capacity

Replacement

Expansion

Total

1.

2,00,000 Telephone Lines in Dhaka City with Supplier’s Credit

-

2,00,000

2,00,000

2.

3,00,000 Telephone Lines using Private Entrepreneurship

-

3,00,000

3,00,000

3.

67,500 Digital Telephone Lines more under Dhaka Telephone Project-II.

10,000

28,000

38,000

4.

2,16,000 Digital Telephone Lines outside Dhaka

50,000

1,16,000

2,16,000

The greatest positive sign for BTTB is that there will be no Analog Exchanges in place after 2001 in the district city level. All transmission links interconnecting the district headquarters will become digital at the end of 2001. Therefore, the quality of service will be very much satisfactory at the introduction of all Digital Technology.

EXPANSION OF TRANSMISSION SYSTEM BY BTTB

By the end of year 2001 all the districts will be interconnected through Digital Transmission Links. Most of the major districts will be interconnected through Optical Fiber Line where as others will be interconnected through Digital Microwave Transmission Line. This will increase the Quality of Service of the links and higher bandwidth of the link will boost up the transmission of Data as well as voice. This will definitely help the emerging IT industry to flourish at a higher rate than ever before.

Major backbone transmission links in Bangladesh are presently using star formation with Dhaka at the center of the network. Some of the proposed transmission routes will introduce mesh formation in some areas of backbone transmission network, which will increase the reliability of communication. Some of the old Plesynchronous Digital Hierarchy (PDH) links will be converted to Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) links.

EXPANSION OF INTERNET BACKBONE AND OPTICAL FIBER INTERCONNECTIVITY WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD

Programs are under implementation to increase the Internet Backbone Capacity to 8 Mbps within June, 2001. A Memorandum of Understanding has already been signed with Singapore Telecommunication to interconnect Bangladesh with the outside world through Optical Fiber Link. The estimated project time is 1 year 9 months from the commissioning of the project. A Project Concept Paper (PCP) has already been submitted by Ministry of Post and Telecommunication to expand Internet Services and High-Speed Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Services to all the 64 districts of Bangladesh. An ATM Network between the Divisional Headquarters has also been proposed in this PCP.


FINANCIAL STATEMENT OF BTTB

REVENUE INCOME FOR 1998-99

Actual revenue collection for the financial year 1998-99 was Tk. 12,542.48 million against the budgeted revenue of Tk. 13,800.00 million. There was a shortage of Tk. 1,257.52 million from the budgeted amount. This revenue was 0.72% more than the collected revenue of 1997-98 financial year.

A detail picture of Revenue Collection, Expenditure and Surplus for the period from 1994-95 to 1998-99 is shown in Table-XV.

Table-XV. Comparison of Revenue Collection, Expenditure and Surplus

Year

Revenue Collection (million taka )

Expenditure

(million taka )

Net Surplus

(million taka )

Local

Foreign

Total

1994-95

 

 

8911.07

2810.08

6100.09

1995-96

 

 

8373.18

2904.13

5469.05

1996-97

7360.20

3360.28

10720.48

5730.81

4980.67

1997-98

7830.96

4610.22

12450.18

7200.17

5250.01

1998-99

8420.24

4120.00

12540.24

6167.84*

6374.64

1999-00

 

 

14006.76

4864.82

9141.94

(49 taka=1US$)

*Amount includes repayment of bond valued 3346.30 million

 

REVENUE COLLECTION

The statement of billed amount, Revenue Collection and Receivable figures for the year 1997-98 and 1998-99 are shown in Table XVI.

 

Table XVI. Revenue Collection and Revenue Receivable

Description

Taka in Million

1997-98

1998-99

Receivable amount as on opening day of fiscal year

3,574.53

3,770.95

Bills issued during the fiscal year

12,648.26

13,251.06

Total Receivable amount during the year

16,222.79

17,022.01

Actual Receipt in the year

12,451.84

12,542.48

Receivable amount carried over to next financial year

3,770.95

4,479.53

Table XVII shows the service wise revenue collection for the year 1997-98 and 1998-99.

Table XVII. Service Wise Revenue Collection in 1998-99 and 1999-00

Name of Service

1998-99

1999-00

Taka in Million

Percentage of Total

Taka in Million

Percentage of Total

Telegraph

12.26

0.09%

12.07

0.08%

Telephone

12,138.30

96.78%

13,564.91

96.85%

Telex

200.28

1.60%

157.66

1.13%

Others

191.64

1.53%

272.11

1.94%

Total

12,542.48

100.00%

 

100.00%

 

Service wise distribution of actual revenue collection along with rate of yearly increase/decrease of such collections for the periods from 1994-95 to 1998-99 are shown in Table-XVIII

Table-XVIII. Service Wise Yearly Revenue Collection and their percentage increment/decrement

Service

Item

1994-95

1995-96

1996-97

1997-98

1998-99

Telegraph

Revenue

20.64

18.75

17.50

15.00

12.26

 

Change

(20%)

(9.15)

(6.66%)

(14.28%)

(18.26%)

Telephone

Revenue

8509.16

7878.45

9955.40

11874.81

12138.30

 

Change

18%

(41%)

26.36%

19.28%

2.22%

Telex

Revenue

243.82

215.68

290.40

198.34

200.28

 

Change

(19%)

(11.54)

34.64%

(31.70)

0.98%

Others

Revenue

137.45

260.30

461.50

363.69

191.64

 

Change

(31%)

89.38%

77.30%

(21.19%)

(47.31%)

Total

Revenue

8911.07

8373.18

10724.80

12451.84

12542.48

 

Change

15%

(6.04%)

16%

16.10

0.72%


ANNUAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (ADP) FOR CAPITAL INVESTMENT

Every year capital is invested through national Annual Development Program (ADP) of the government for the projects which accrue fixed assets. A statement of such total investment in BTTB for the year 1998-99 against 8 development projects is given in Table-XIX.

Table-XIX. BTTB’s investment in 1998-99 through ADP

(Taka in Million)

Item

Local Currency

Foreign Exchange

Total

Allotment

22588.99

14285.00

38719.00

Expenditure

9719.38

14616.48

26430.00

Surplus

12869.61

331.48

12288.13


HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

NUMBER OF POSTS IN BTTB

There are 19,317 regular posts (working position) under different categories in BTTB which are classified into following four service classes:

Class I Service: 681 Posts

Class II Service: 30 Posts

Class III Service: 14,633 posts

Class IV Service: 3,973 Posts

Total: 19,317 Posts

Table XX describes functional department wise number of employees.

Table XX. Functional Department Wise Major Categories of Manpower

Major Categories

Number ( as on 1999)

Administration

Officer

45

Staff

5,402

Engineering

Engineer

568

Engineering workman

10,597

Traffic

Officer

36

Support staff

2,376

Finance & account

Accountant

47

Support staff

246

Total

19,317

HRD ACTIVITIES IN BTTB

BTTB has a Telecommunication Staff College for training of engineers which is equipped with modern telecommunication training facilities. There are also three telecommunication-training centers to train the staffs. There are also five telecommunication-training sub-centers for training of technicians. The training institutions provide extensive training of engineers & staffs on job entry and also conduct refresher courses regularly. Newly recruited engineers are also required to participate in a foundation-training course conducted by Bangladesh Public Administration Training Center, which is compulsory to members of the Bangladesh Civil Service Cadres of all disciplines.

The Telecom Staff College (TSC) at Gazipur (near Dhaka), established in 1987 with ITU and UNDP assistance, has already put its marks as one of the leading institutes for telecom training in this region. It has all the infrastructural facilities and equipment including resource personnel to establish itself as the regional training center.

FOREIGN TRAINING

125 Officers of Bangladesh T & T Board received foreign training in different Telecom Courses during 1999-2000 in Canada, China, USA, France, Sweden, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and United Kingdom.

PARTICIPATION IN FACTORY TESTING, SEMINAR, WORKSHOP AND MEETING

60 Officers of Bangladesh T & T board participated in different types of Factory Testing, Seminar, Workshop and Meeting held abroad during 1999-2000.


PRIVATE SECTOR TELECOM IN BANGLADESH

Table XXI. Public & Private Telecom Operator ( Profile )

 

Operator

Functionality

 

Public Sector Telecom

 

1

Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB)

Telecom Carrier , Basic Telephony service, ISP & other value added services

 

Private Sector Telecom

 

1

Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd (PBTL)

Cellular Service

(Amps &CDMA-800)

2

Grameen Phone Limited

Cellular Service (GSM-900)

3

Sheba Telecom (pvt) Ltd

Rural Telecom , Cellular

(GSM-900)

4

Bangladesh Rural Telecom Authority (BRTA)

Rural Telecom Service

5

TM International Bangladesh Ltd (AKTEL)

Cellular Service (GSM-900)

6

Bangladesh Telecom (pvt) Ltd

(BTL)

Paging, Trunking & Riverine Telecom

7

SITA

Lease Line Data Service

Source : BTTB December 1999

Table XXII. Private Sector Telecom (Network)

Name of Project

Country

Company

Project Status

Installation of 200,000 Personal Handy Phone (PHS) System in Dhaka City

Japan

 

License Granted

Implementation work started

Build owned & Operate 300k Digital Telephone in Dhaka Multi Exchange area

USA

World Tell

Evaluation Completed – Under MOPT. Not under BTTB

Introduction of GMPCS

Service

(Satellite Telephone) in Bangladesh

 

International

Iridium

Iridium LLC is given Temporary license for test & evaluation

Source : BTTB , December 1999

 

Table XXIII. Existing Licensing & tariff arrangement with Private sector

Private Telecom Service Provider

Type of Service

System

Revenue Sharing

Bangladesh Rural Telecom Authority (BRTA) & Sheba Telecom Ltd

Basic Telephone Service in Rural Areas

Local

 

NWD &

 

ISD

Senders keep all.

Senders keep all

Incoming- BTTB70% BRTA or (Sheba ) 30%

Outgoing – Equal distribution between both parties after payment of dues to foreign administrator

Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd (PBTL)

Cellular

Local

 

 

NWD

ISD

Incoming – PBTL keeps all

Outgoing – PBTL pays BTTB full call fees and keeps the balance

Incoming : PBTL doesn’t receive any portion of Payments received from foreign administrator

Outgoing : PBTL pays BTTB full call fee and keeps the balance

Grameen Phone

Cellular

 

Same arrangements as with PBTL except Grameen get 10% of outgoing after settlement of TAR

Source BTTB

Mobile Market in Bangladesh

Mobile phone users in Bangladesh jumped 118 per cent to well above quarter a million last year. It gave the mobile market the one-third size of fixed telephone network of Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB). Technology-wise, CDMA grew 112 per cent and GSM grew 155 per cent in the year 2000.

Continuously widening "Access Divide" in the mobile market has, however, been diminishing this success story. Mobile subscribers capable of calling to BTTB’s network grew only 15 per cent while the subscribers without such access recorded 359 per cent growth.

Altogether 160,000 customers of GrameenPhone have been isolated from the 616,000 fixed telephone users of the BTTB. Remaining 19,000 "mobile only" users of PBTL, TMIB and Sheba can only receive calls from BTTB’s network. Therefore, 64 per cent of the country’s total mobile users are barred from calling the mainstream telecom network.

The mobile operators’ investment plan to expand BTTB’s infrastructure is yet to be approved by the government. The operators’ submission for reducing the region’s highest tariff (65 per cent) on importing handsets is long pending with the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

Ignoring such adversities, GrameenPhone has been consistently maintaining its dominance with 192,000 customers. Achieving 220 per cent growth by the year-end has outstripped GrameenPhone’s own prediction of 125 per cent growth in 2000. The operator prefers remaining conservative by sticking to 125 per cent growth projection in this year as well. ( Source – Financial Express )

Table XXIV. BANGLADESH MOBILE MARKET IN 2000

Operator

Brand

Network

With BTTB

Without BTTB

Total in 2000

Total in 1999

Growth in 2000

PBTL

City Cell

AMPS

5,500

0

5,500

18,400

-70%

PBTL

City Cell

CDMA

14,200

13,300

27,500

13,000

112%

Grameen Phone

Grameen Phone

GSM

32,000

*160,000

192,000

60,050

220%

TMIB

Aktel

GSM

34,300

1,700

36,000

25,274

43%

Sheba

Sheba World

GSM

16,000

4,000

20,000

11,939

68%

Total

   

102,000

179,000

283,000

130,662

118%

Source :www.emc-database.com

*Including 49,000 Prepaid ( 600 Percent Annual Growth )

Table XXV. Private Telecom Service Subscription & growth

Company

System in use

Subscriber end April , 00

% Percentage Growth from end April , 000

% Percentage Penetration of Population

Bangladesh

GSM/AMPS/CDMA

212,200

72.6 %

0.12 %

Grameen Phone

GSM –900

140,000

(Oct-00)

134.0 %

 

Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd (PBTL)

AMPS

14,500

- 34.1 %

 

Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd (PBTL)

CDMA

17,500

721.6 %

 

Sheba Telecom

(Pvt)Ltd

GSM-900

12,400

24.0 %

 

TM International

AK TEL

GSM-900

27,800

32.4 %

 

Source : Mobile Communication International ( Grameen Phone )

Table XXVI. South Asia -Cellular Tariff in USD

Country

Peak Hour Rate (per /Min)

Off Peak Hour

Rate (per /Min)

Bangladesh

0.08

0.06

India

0.15

0.14

Pakistan

0.11

0.07

Sri Lanka

0.14

0.06

Nepal

No data available

 

Source : ITU – world Telecommunication development Report 1999 (Grameen Phone)

Table XXVII. Waiting List for Fixed Line Telephone ( South Asia )

Country

(k) 1995

(k) 1998

(k) Total Demand

Satisfied Demand (%) 1998

Bangladesh

154.0

144.9

522.9

72.3

India

2,277.0

2,705.7

24,299.4

88.0

Nepal

163.5

215.3

409.3

47.4

Pakistan

209.5

298.0

3,055.0

90.2

Sri Lanka

227.2

283.8

807.3

64.8

Source : ITU – world Telecommunication development Report 1999 (Grameen Phone)

Table XXVIII. Start up cost of subscription for fixed line ( South Asia )

Country

Start up cost ( Year -1999) in USD $

Bangladesh

392

India

22

Pakistan

92

Nepal

35

Sri Lanka

220

Source Grameen Phone

Table XXIX. Private Sector ( International ) participation in BTTB Telecom Projects

Company

Project

Status

Alcatel (France )

Switching( 150,000 Digital Line ) Microwave Link

Dhaka- Chittagong fiber Optic link

Completed

NEC (Japan )

Switching / Mohakali & Bedbonia Ground Satellite

Completed

Italtel (Italy )

Switching / Microwave Link

In progress

CMEC (China )

Switching ( 216,000 digital line )

In progress

Mitsui /Marubani

( Japan )

Digital Cable Layout /Transmission /Radio Link

In progress

TRT ( France )

Micro Wave Link

In progress

Erickson /Mitsui

(Sweden /Japan )

Switching ( 150,000 Digital line )

In Progress

Sumitomo/NEC (Japan )

Switching (100,000) Digital Line )

On going

Northern Telecom (Turkey)

Transmission /Radio link /Microwave

In progress

Telecommunication Consulting Ltd (India )

Transmission /Radio link /Microwave

On going

Nippon Telecom Consulting ( NTC) / Mitsui

(Japan )

Greater Dhaka Telecommunication Network/Switching (138,500 Digital Line )

Expected date of completion June 2001

Tyco Submarine Systems Ltd

Undersea submarine cable Link from Chittagong

Final Negotiation

Citibank is financing this US$145 million project, Expected completion date Sept , 2001            

WorldTel USA

300,000 land based telephones

Build own & Operate

( BOO)

Final Negotiation with directly with Ministry of Post & Telecommunication

Ericsson (Sweden)

Mobile Internet service

Final Negotiation

Expected to be in operation by early 2001

BTTB, SingTel (joint venture)

Internet telephony

Set up an Internet Exchange in Bangladesh

MOU Signed

Source BTTB April , 00

Legend – Abbreviations:

BOO refers to Build, Operate & Own. BLT refers to Build, Lease and Transfer while BOT refers to Build, Operate and Transfer.

Information Courtesy BTTB, Grameen Telecom 4, ITU : All above information are part of the - Government Of Bangladesh National Telecommunications facts

This Report is compiled by

Tanvir Chowdhury on Dec 1st , 2000

Global Amitech ( NFB )

Web : http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news

 

 

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