Teletalk, Banglalink and Summit Towers Limited have agreed to use their telecom infrastructures jointly. To this end, a tripartite agreement was signed in the conference room of the Bangladesh Secretariat on Wednesday. Banglalink Chief Executive Officer Erik Aas, Teletalk Bangladesh Limited Managing Director AKM Habibur Rahman and Summit Towers Limited Chief Executive Officer Md. Arif Al Islam signed this agreement on behalf of their organizations.
The chief guest of the signing ceremony, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mustafa Jabbar, commented that the agreement will initiate a revolutionary change in the mobile telecommunication sector.
He said, quality service should be ensured in the mobile telecommunication sector. For this purpose, infrastructure sharing between mobile operators and related organizations including NTTN is essential. Infrastructure sharing will revolutionize the mobile telecommunication sector. If we can jointly use the infrastructure then there will be proper utilization of electricity and other energy and all operators will be able to provide services in all areas.
That is why the minister urged the infrastructure developers to collectively come forward to develop the telecom network.
The minister highlighted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 19-year program for the transformation of the telecommunication sector in the country and said that telecom is now working as a major tool in the continuation of Digital Bangladesh. There was a time when we were happy to send SMS but now 4G networks even don’t seem enough. Voice calls are no longer dominant; it is being transformed into data-based calls. A major tool for this transformation is infrastructure. Instead of connecting four operators to four towers, if four operators can be connected to one tower, the users will benefit as well as the investment will be reduced.
As a result, the operators will also benefit, he said, adding that in the future, a lot of infrastructure will be needed during the transition to 5G. In this case it will be very difficult to have separate infrastructure for each operator. He thanked the stakeholders for signing the tripartite agreement between Banglalink, Teletalk and Summit Towers Limited for joint use of telecom infrastructure. The minister expressed hope that other operators would come forward in a similar manner.
While speaking as the President on the occasion, the Posts and Telecommunications Secretary Abu Hena Morshed Zaman mentioned the infrastructure sharing agreement as a historic milestone for the mobile telecommunication sector. He expressed strong hope that the progress of the mobile telecommunication sector will be accelerated on the basis of mutual trust and confidence between the concerned parties.
Under the agreement, these two telecom operators will share infrastructure between themselves in accordance with all guidelines and laws including tower sharing policy. Summit Towers Limited will provide all technical support in this initiative.
