"It is true that we have not been able to be prepared fully, but we must get connected first and start exploring its huge potential," he said while speaking as chief guest at a function in the city.

Sheba Phone organised the function at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre on Sunday in connection with the introduction of fixed wireless phone in CDMA technology in all the upazilas of 31 districts of southeast and southwest regions of the country.

Stressing the need for giving the rural people access to telecommunication facility, Aminul said teledensity of a country is considered as an indicator of its economic condition.

Like most other developing countries, Bangladesh is lagging far behind the developed world in terms of penetration in telecom, he said, adding teledensity in Bangladesh was around two percent, one of the lowest in the world, at the beginning of the new millennium.

However, the per capita teledensity of Bangladesh now stands at around 10 percent, he said, adding, the country has become one of the attractive markets for international telecom operators and the country still has to go far in terms of teledensity in fixed phones.

Speaking as special guest, State Minister for Finance and Planning Shah Mohammad Abul Hossain said 70 percent of the country's total population live in rural areas and economic development will not be possible unless this huge population have access to ICT.

He said facilitating economic activities in rural areas will help alleviate poverty, and Sheba Phone is trying to provide communication network to the remotest corner of the rural areas in all upazilas.

Sheba Phone in the form of public call office (PCO) will give the poorest of the poor access to telecommunication facilities, Abul Hossain said, adding, possessing a phone for regular call will not be required because PCOs will be established at the doorstep of the people.

Afzal Husain Chowdhury, chairman and managing director of Integrated Services Limited (Sheba Phone), said appropriate regulatory environment and policies need to be formulated to help rural operators sustain.

"A re-look at the entire gamut of rural communications is necessary if we want to make a speedy headway. Most of the financing agencies were of the view that rural telecom will not work, but our dream is to prove that it will work," he said.

Badiur Rahman, chief executive officer of the company, said Sheba Phone has just completed the first phase installation of its new project based on next generation WLL CDMA technology.

The system is now going through testing and commissioning by the American strategic partners - Alvarion, he added.

"We have fixed our tariff structure in line with that of BTTB, Tele Talk and Palli Phone which are affordable by our rural subscribers. We have kept the price at Tk 6,000 only by giving about 40 percent discount for the sake of poor subscribers despite high cost of the wireless telephone set and taxes," Rahman said.

For those who find it difficult to pay, arrangement have been made for providing telephones in installments with an initial payment of only Tk 1000, he mentioned.

Rahman said Sheba Phone is providing 30,000 fixed line phones in each of 222 upazilas (130 to 140 phones in every upazila) in 31 districts of southern Bangladesh.

"We have finalised interconnection with BTTB and all other mobile operators so that our subscribers can have access nationally and internationally," he added.