Телекоммуникации в Бангладеш: Обзор и развитие

Overview of telecommunications in Bangladesh

The telecom sector in Bangladesh is rapidly emerging. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is the regulatory authority for this sector, overseeing licensing, policy, etc. The calling code of Bangladesh is +880. There are also several SubCodes.

As defined in the National Telecommunications Policy 1998 and International Long Distance Telecommunications Services (ILDTS) Policy 2007, all mobile operators are to interconnect through Interconnection Exchange (ICX) and all international calls to be handled by International Gateway (IGW) which is to be connected to the mobile and fixed operators through the ICXs. The Interconnection Exchange (ICX) will receive all calls from the mobile and fixed operators whenever the call is made to another network and will pass it to the destination network if the call is local ,and will pass to the IGWs if the call is international. ICX will also deliver calls received from IGWs where the call is destined. Below illustrate the structure of interconnection between different interfaces.

There are four mobile phone operators in Bangladesh, operating under the names of Banglalink, Grameenphone, Robi and TeleTalk. The number of mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh as of April 2015 was 124.705 million, having risen from the February 2009 figure of 45.21 million. As of September, 2022 the number of mobile phone subscriber has risen to 181.43 Million.

On 25 February 2008 the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission awarded licenses for two Interconnection Exchanges (ICX), three International Gateways (IGm), and one International Internet Gateway (IIG) to six firms through an open auction in February 2008. The incumbent BTTB got the same licenses too. And after then on 12 April 2012, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission awarded licenses for twenty one Interconnection Exchanges (ICX), twenty two International Gateways (IGw), and thirty International Internet Gateway (IIG). Here is the list of all operators:

As of 2012, there are 23 broadcast television stations in Bangladesh, including the state run BTV and BTV World, with 20 million television sets in the country. The number of private satellite channels are growing. The first private channel in Bangladesh was ATN Bangla. There are 8 full fledged news channels (ATN News, Channel 24, DBC News, Ekattor, Independent Television, Jamuna Television, News24 and Somoy TV).

The first connectivity in Bangladesh with the internet was in 1996. In the past few years, growth has been rapid. The government's high internet tariff is impeding the growth of this sector, claims Norwegian owned Telenor. Recently the government has decided to reduce the tariff by 50%. The internet country code of Bangladesh is bd. As of 2005 more than 180 Internet Service Providers are operating in the country. ISP's are regulated by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). The number of internet users in Bangladesh as of March 2009 is over 600,000, compared to 100,000 in 2000. However, only 0.3% of the population use the internet, thus making Bangladesh the lowest usage percentage per population of the internet in the world with the exception of North Korea, Myanmar and Sierra Leone. In April 2010 Akhtaruzzaman Manju, president of the Internet Service Providers' Association of Bangladesh, told Xinhua that the country's six cell phone operators and Internet Service Providers have so far provided over 800,000 internet connections. "We've estimated that nearly 10 million people in the country are using 800,000 internet connections on a shared basis," he said, adding the number of internet users in the country is increasing yearly by around 15 16 percent. A 2009 study by the Boston Consulting Group found that the number of Internet subscribers in Bangladesh is likely to reach 18.3 million by the year 2020, equivalent to a 32 percent household Internet penetration, which will result in a 2.6 percent contribution to the country's GDP while creating 129,000 more jobs, the research added.

There are 6 satellite Earth stations. Talimabad, Betbunia are two of them. Some info shows that the number is now 7. Bangladesh has sent its first ever satellite Bangabandhu 1 into space on May 11, 2018.

Bangladesh is connected to SEA ME WE 4 or SMW 4 (South East Asia – Middle East – Western Europe 4) and SEA ME WE 5 submarine cable systems. The landing site of the SMW 4 Bangladesh branch is located in Cox's Bazar and the landing site of the SMW 5 Bangladesh branch is located in Kuakata. The two submarine cables provide the country with redundancy to support uninterrupted internet and long distance communications and also with a huge bandwidth. Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited is the only submarine cable operator in Bangladesh.