The country’s leading mobile phone operator Grameenphone on Monday said it would launch the 3G service in specific areas of the Dhaka and Chittagong cities by October.
The GP announcement came after the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission had held the 3G spectrum auction on Sunday where four participating operators got licence.
In the much-talked-about 3G auction leading operator Grameenphone took 10MHz with $210 million, while Banglalink, Robi and Airtel took 5MHz each with $105 million an operator.
The 3G services will be extended to rest of Dhaka district, Narayanganj and Gazipur by November and the seven divisional headquarters will be covered by December, said GP chief executive officer Vivek Sood.
‘It will be a new chapter in the history of Grameenphone and Bangladesh. The country is getting ready for the data-centric era, and our mission is to help the nation move ahead,’ Vivek said at a news briefing at Sonargaon Hotel on the day.
GP chief technical officer Tanveer Mohammad said the company would launch 3G in the existing SIM cards to avoid the hassle of the subscribers.
‘The subscribers don’t need to change their SIM cards. Those will be automatically turned into 3G-enabled SIMs,’ he said.
The subscribers will be notified through SMS and they have to avail the 3G service just by buying packages as they do now, he said.
The GP submitted 60 per cent of the bidding amount to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on Monday as the 3G guideline made it mandatory to pay the amount within 30 days.
‘The GP submitted $126 million today and applied for the no objection certificate to import the necessary equipments,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age.
BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose told New Age that the commission was working very fast to complete the formalities.
‘We are happy that the operators are doing things fast. We are trying to help the customers in the best possible manner,’ he told reporters on Monday.
-With New Age input
