Telecom services may be disrupted tonight for spectrum reallocation: BTRC

The mobile phone users may face disruption in telecom services tonight from 11pm to 7am when the telecom regulator will rearrange spectrum among the operators.

"Users may face difficulty in making phone calls and internet speed for eight hours tonight due to spectrum reallocation," said Zakir Hossain Khan, deputy director of the media wing at Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

"We hope to complete the task by 6am."

Earlier on March 31, the BTRC disclosed the information of such a disruption to happen in two phases on April 1 and April 7.

The disclosure came three weeks after the auction of radio frequency (spectrum) totalling 27.4 MHz among Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink.

The BTRC auctioned 7.4MHz in the 1,800 band and 20MHz in the 2,100 band.

On April 1, the telecom watchdog completed reallocating spectrum in the 2,100 band for Teletalk and in the 1,800 band for all four mobile phone operators.

Today, it will rearrange the 20MHz spectrum in the 2,100 band for Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink.