RanksTel users reach 1.25 lakh

The number of subscribers of RanksTel reached around 1.25 lakh with old and new users in nine months since its re-lunch in July last year.
The private fixed phone operator now earns around Tk 200 a month in revenue from each user, said one of its top officials.
The operator targets to achieve 2.5 lakh subscribers by the end of this year, said its Chief Operating Officer Abul K Shamsuddin.
RanksTel had a total of 3.5 lakh subscribers when its licence was cancelled in May 2010 on allegations of its involvement in illegal use of voice over internet protocol calls.
“After the re-launching, we are now working like a new operator. Some of the customers returned to our network, but many did not,” said Shamsuddin.
The company had to retune the frequencies of its entire base transceivers (BTSs), as the telecom regulator changed the spectrum in the same band at the time of returning the licence, he said.
The official said they had to retune the old telephone sets also.
“We are also developing the network in city areas to bring corporate, small and medium business houses in the network,” he said. RanksTel has operations in Dhaka, Chittagong, Bogra, Sylhet and Khulna, he said.
The operator has 80 BTSs in Dhaka and will bring in another 50 transceivers from the small cities like Feni and Cox's Bazar to the divisional headquarters in six months, he said.
The company has also partnered with Grameenphone, Banglalink, Robi and Airtel to share their towers and inked deals with optical fibre cable network providers to share fibre cables, he said.
RanksTel wants to serve more people with broadband service through fibre, as the demand for data connectivity is increasing everyday.