Earlier in July 2001, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MoPT) had awarded a licence to the WorldTel Bangladesh Ltd to run fixed line phones in the capital on a joint co-exclusivity with the BTTB for a period of four years from the effective date of the licence.

Dhaka city was kept out of the open licensing regime as the WorldTel Bangladesh Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of the UK-based WorldTel Holdings Ltd, served a legal notice to the MoPT early January last year pre-empting any move to open its area of operations to other companies.

The move was taken by the WorldTel when Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) took initiative to award licence under a new PSTN (public switched telephone network) licensing regime.

The BTRC, however, refrained from awarding licence for the central zone comprising Dhaka and adjacent areas and gave about two dozen licences to interested companies.

A chamber judge of the Supreme Court yesterday ruled out WorldTel's petition seeking stay order until the company files an appeal in this regard.

The decision, "a land breaking one" according to many, would pave the way for private operators interested to launch the service in the capital, dwelling place of some 10 million people.

"This would enable us to launch service in the capital where about 70 percent of the country's telephone users live," Zakaria Swapan, chief executive officer of the RanksTel, told The Daily Star in his reaction.

Many private fixed phone operators including the Bashundhara Communications Network Limited, which won the first licence, refrained from rolling out network as they thought that it should not be a viable business without having the central zone in the network.

At least two companies--Bayphones and RanksTel--have rolled out networks in the south-eastern Chittagong and Sylhet divisions offering first ever private fixed phones to its residents, thus curtailing the monopoly of the state-run fixed phone operator Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB).

Most of the operators have shown interest in the Sylhet and Chittagong zones as the commercial viability in these areas is comparatively higher than that of others.

The BTRC licence is valid for 15 years and can be renewed. The commission has segmented the country into five zones--Dhaka multi-exchange area (city), Sylhet, Chittagong and Comilla, Barisal and Khulna, and Rajshahi and Rangpur--for the private-sector landline telephone service.

Bangladesh has some one million fixed phone users mostly provided by the BTTB.