Bangladesh restores mobile network in border areas with India

A day after the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) issued orders of shutting down all mobile networks within one kilometre border of Bangladesh with India and Myanmar, the BTRC issued fresh orders asking telecom operators to restore network on Wednesday.

“Please reinstate operations of the BTS (Base Trans-Receiver Stations) near the Bangladesh-India border sites immediately,” the email to BRTC read.

On Tuesday, Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission had asked telecom operators to shut down all mobile networks in the one kilometre border areas with India and Myanmar.

However, as many as 10 million people in as many as 36 districts of Bangladesh were affected due to the network shut down. As many as 1500 mobile towers were shut down and that also affected few kilometres area inside the border.

People in six districts of Bangladesh sharing its border with Indian states of Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya like Chittagong, Khulna, Sylhet, Mymensingh Rangpur and Rajshahi were largely affected.

Bangladesh authorities did not mention reasons for the mobile network shut down in border areas, however, a letter written to the BTRC stated ‘security concerns in the present circumstance’.

While Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission asked telecom operators to restore services immediately, nationalised telecom service like Grameenphone and other private telecom operators like Banglalink, Robi and Teletalk have informed authorities that they will take at least one day to fully restore services.