The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has released guidelines for the Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN). According to the guidelines, private entrepreneurs, both local and local-foreign joint ventures (JVs), can develop, build, operate and maintain the NTTN to provide services for licensed operators. The move comes in light of the increasing clutter owing to hazardous optical fibre networks built by multiple operators in the same areas in the metropolitan cities and towns in the country, thus leading to waste of national resources. NTTN licensees will not be allowed to provide telecom services directly to users but only to access network service operators and licensed telecom operators.
Meanwhile, the BTRC is planning to issue 3G licences by March 2009. 3G spectrum in the 2100 MHz band will be awarded through an open auction.
