New frequencies to give lift to mobile phone services

A base station of a mobile phone company. Mobile operators claim that the lack of frequencies, or spectrum, is one of the reasons for the deterioration in services, with increased numbers of dropped calls and network busy signals.

The telecom regulator is expected to allocate additional frequencies for mobile phone operators next week in a step that will remove one of the major barriers to improving phone services in the country.
During the past year mobile operators claimed that the lack of frequencies, or spectrum, was one of the main reasons for the deterioration in services, with increased numbers of dropped calls and network busy signals.
They also claim it raises costs as operators are forced to build more base stations to compensate for the lack of frequencies.
At present the mobile operators share around 80MH on the frequency spectrum, but in a move aimed at resolving the problem the Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regularity Commission will meet today to discuss how to allocate an additional 20 MH.
"We feel that the lack of frequencies hinders the growth of mobile communication. We already have done our job in recovering unused frequencies and perhaps additional spectrum will be allocated by next week," said BTRC Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Manzurul Alam on Monday.
The question now is how these frequencies should be distributed. At present there is a little relationship between the number of subscribers and the frequency allocation. This has led to a situation where the country's smallest mobile operator, state owned Teletalk, has the largest amount of frequencies.
One senior official at a mobile operator said: “Whatever spectrum BTRC has, it should be allocated in a way that reflects its economic value and ensures that it is efficiently used."
"It is not possible to provide better mobile services only by establishing base stations. You should have adequate spectrum in line with your subscriber growth," he added.
As of March 2008, the number of mobile phone customers reached 38.93 million and the rapid increase has caused problems among the larger operators. This has led to intense discussions between the companies and the BTRC.
BTRC has recovered some frequencies that were allocated for other users and will now be redistributed, however on top of these it is understood that new frequencies will be made available.
According to informed sources, the number one mobile operator Grameenphone, the number two Banglalink, and the number three Aktel will get the lion's share of the new frequencies.
At present Teletalk with 1.01 million subscribers has 15.2 MH, while Grameenphone with 17.81 million subscribers has 14.5 MH.
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