Dhaka Phone launches land phone in Dhaka

Dhaka Phone, a privately owned public switched telephone network (land phone), launched its services in Dhaka yesterday, with an eye to adding 25,000 subscribers in the capital in next three months.
The company, which started its operations in Chittagong and Sylhet zones in July 2006, becomes the first private-sector fixed-line operator in the capital.
ATM Hayatuzzaman Khan, chairman of Dhaka Telephone Company Ltd (DTCL) -- Dhaka Phone's parent company, formally inaugurated the services at the National Press Club.
He said they have so far ploughed around Tk 200 crore into the business and have a target of Tk 100 crore more in investment in the next six months.
The DTCL chairman said, "Primarily our service will be available in the city's Uttara, Banani, Gulshan, Mohakhali, Tongi, Mirpur, Dhaka Cantonment, Tejgaon, Saidabad, Matuail, Keraniganj and Zinzira areas."
He said they will make their service, which includes Internet accessibility, available to every area in the city within next one month.
To mark its footprint in the capital, the operator announced a special package that includes a connection with a Huawei phone set at Tk 2500, company officials later said at a press conference.
A customer, however, can opt for a Dhaka Phone RIM (removable identification module) at Tk 75 only.
The company has fixed Tk 0.25 per minute for an intra-Dhaka Phone call within a zone while inter-zonal calls will cost Tk 0.50 a minute during peak hours (8:00am to 8:00pm) and Tk 0.30 per minute during off-peak hours (8:00pm to 8:00am), DTCL's Director Mustafa Rafiqul Islam said.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has divided the country into five zones for land phone operators.
Local call charge from Dhaka Phone to other private land phone operators has been fixed at Tk 0.67 per every three-minute pulse during peak hours and Tk 0.50 per three-minute pulse during off-peak hours.
Zonal or NWD (nationwide dialing) call charge from Dhaka Phone to other PSTN operators is Tk 3.50 per minute during peak hours and Tk 2 per minute during off-peak hours, Mustafa Islam said.
A Dhaka Phone subscriber will have to pay Tk 0.50 for a local three-minute call to a Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone (BTTB) phone, while call charges within 100 kilometres is Tk 3 per minute and beyond 100 kilometres is Tk 4 per minute.
The call charge from Dhaka Phone to any mobile phone is Tk 1.15 per minute with 30-second pulse during peak hours (8:00am to 5:00pm).
The company will not charge any monthly line rent fee and migration or shifting comes gratis, the DTCL director said.
The DTCL uses switching equipment and phone sets made by Chinese telecommunications company Huawei while transmission gadgets come from German's Siemens and France's Alcatel.
The DTCL received its licence from BTRC to operate fixed line phone services in Dhaka on September 9 this year.
Two other operators -- RanksTel and Square Informatix -- also got licences for Dhaka on the same day.
Besides, another private land phone operator National Telecom Ltd yesterday got BTRC licence to operate in Dhaka.