Bangladesh's telecom regulator today said it would open up its international telecommunications gateway to the private sector, which would for the first time allow operators to lay underwater cables and connect terrestrial lines with India.
This was stated by Zia Ahmed, head of Bangladesh Telecommunications and Regulatory Commission (BTRC), who also announced that licences to run third generation (3G)
mobile services will be auctioned this year in a bid to attract billions of dollars of investment.
"All these (moves) will create a new dynamism in the market and ensure at least one billion dollars of new investment in the telecoms sector this year," Ahmed told AFP.
The move follows Monday's approval of Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel's $300 million bid for the country's fourth largest mobile phone operator Warid from Abu Dhabi-based Dhabi Group.
"We are finalising guidelines for 3G licensing (which) will be finished by June 2010," Ahmed said.
At least four slots of bandwidth will be sold off at open auction by the end of 2010 and a number of top telecom companies have already indicated their interest, Ahmed said.
BTRC officials, who declined to be named, said British mobile phone giant Vodafone had approached the commission for a 3G license.
The Bharti deal alone will bring in "much more" than the original $300 million investment, Ahmed said.
Bharti is the latest foreign company to make in-roads into the fast-growing Bangladesh mobile market.
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