Removal of risky overhead cables by the extended yearend deadline has become uncertain as cable television operators and internet service providers in the capital find it an impossible task.
Cable television operators and internet service providers called on the Dhaka City Corporation to lay out a common duct in the city to take underground such overhead cables avoiding the transmission system of the private nationwide telecommunication transmission network companies.
They said a common duct, laid out by the city corporation, would ensure services at an affordable tariff as the NTTN companies were charging high rates.
The ISPs and cable television operators have also said they will not be able to take underground the overhead cables even by the extended deadline of December 31 as the NTTN companies will not be able to complete their jobs on time. The deadline earlier was October 31.
According a government decision made on August 26, all risky overhead cables in the city will need to be removed by December 31.
NTTN operators will now need to lay out the network along the rod Uttara to Shahbagh in the capital by September 30 and the ISPs offering services along the area will need to take underground the overhead cables by October 31.
SM Anwar Parvez, the founder-president of the Cable Operators’ Association of Bangladesh, at a briefing on Sunday demanded extension to the December 31 deadline by at least a year and urged the government to construct a common duct for underground transmission system.
‘We want to take our cables underground. But it involves many things, including fund and technology. An infrastructure which has been built over the years cannot be removed overnight,’ Anwar Parvez told New Age.
‘A certain quarter is misleading the government by asking it to remove the overhead cables at such a short notice,’ he said. ‘The deadline for the removal of overhead cables has been set without any feasibility study.’
Anwar said, ‘Once we start taking service from NTTN companies, we will remain completely dependent on them for the whole transmission system.’
‘Who will be responsible if the cables are cut somewhere in the transmission line? Who will repair them? Do the NTTN companies have the manpower to take prompt action?’ he said.
He called on the Dhaka City Corporation to set up a common underground duct around the city to facilitate optical fibre transmission.
Akhtaruzzaman Manju, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh seconded Anwar’s views as he talked with New Age.
Such an initiative will break the existing monopoly of the private sector in setting up the countrywide optical fibre transmission network, he said.
Referring to the government deadline, he said it would be quite impossible for them to go underground by the deadline if the NTTN companies cannot roll out their network on time.
Industry insiders said the ISPs and cable operators were waiting to take services from the Summit Communications Ltd, which is yet to complete the network job although the first NTTN company in Bangladesh, Fibre@Home, claimed they had finished laying out its network in the capital.
Fibre@Home will charge Tk 5 a metre every month and the Summit will charge Tk 2 for the service.
Asked why Fibre@Home is charging excessive tariff, an official said, Fibre@Home needed to pay Tk 2,200 a metre to the city corporation in compensation for road digging and Summit has got the clearance from city corporation for only Tk 200 a metre in compensation.
The Summit Communications Ltd managing director, Arif Al Islam, however, hoped to complete the network job by the stipulated time.
