26 mobile sites could not be activated even after 6 days after being hit by Cyclone Sitrang. However, within three days, the inactive Point of Payment (POP) of NTTN, IIG, ISP and BTCL have been activated.
BTRC’s roundup report says that 7 thousand 342 mobile sites were down till the morning of October 25 due to Sitrang. Also, 353 ISPs of NTTN, 99 ISPs and 32 POPs of BTCL went offline. However, by noon on October 31, connections were operational except for 26 mobile sites.
Earlier, BTRC informed that 4 thousand 831 mobile towers were activated till 10 pm on October 26, but the work of activating 1 thousand 176 towers was ongoing.
At that time, out of 4718 Grameenphone sites, it was possible to activate 690 out of 2863 affected sites. Out of 5032 sites held by Ravi Axiata, only 574 of the 2491 inactive sites were activated.
Also, 20 out of 1378 affected sites of Banglalink and 244 out of 1215 sites of the state-owned Teletalk were activated within 28 hours.
On the other hand, 352 points of presence (POP) of Summit Communication, a Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN) company, were closed. And since most of the mobile operators have service from them, internet problem has arisen.
It may be noted, the Department of Posts and Telecommunications warned the operators through the Regulatory Commission BTRC in addition to alerting the receivers through SMS before the strike. As an effect of Cyclone Sitrang, 6,000 mobile towers out of 7,342 sites out of 13,902 sites located in 19 districts of the southwestern region of the country went down.
