BTRC Issued Draft Guideline for Second Submarine Cable License for Bangladesh

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has issued draft licensing guidelines for two new submarine cable licences, reports Commsday. The 20-year licences will permit construction and operation of undersea cables into the country, cable landing stations and a terrestrial fibre link to the capital, Dhaka, whilst licensees will have foreign ownership capped at 40%. Concessions include the right to sell or lease capacity to domestic holders of international voice/internet gateway licences as well as authorised international private leased circuit (IPLC) users. The licence acquisition fee has been set at BDT500 million (USD7.2 million), with an annual licensing fee of BDT250 million plus an obligation to share at least 10% of quarterly revenues with the government (with an exemption for the first twelve months of operation). Bidders will compete based on the proportion of their turnover they are willing to hand over to the state.

TeleGeography's GlobalComms Database says that Bangladeshi international gateway operators currently have access to the SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable system via a single landing station located at Cox's Bazar and operated by the Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL), which was spun off from state-run telcoBangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) in July 2008. According to BSCCL, only 24% (10.7Gbps) of the company's 44.6Gbps submarine capacity allocation is currently being used. Back-up connectivity is via satellite earth station/VSAT until an alternative submarine link is available. New submarine cable operating licensees will be required to build a system with a design capacity of at least two fibre pairs supporting a minimum of 64x10Gbps wavelengths (1.28Tbps), with initial lit capacity of at least 40Gbps. Cable facilities should be ready for service 18 months from the date of the concession award. Furthermore, each licensee should build a separate landing station within the general area of Khula-Patuakhali-Barisal-Chittagong, and should provide access, co-location and landing facilities to other submarine cable licensees, as and when required by the BTRC.


Source: http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=31617&email=html

Corss Posted on: Bangladesh ICT News

New IGW ICX License will issue by Bangladesh Government by Next Month

The government of Bangladesh will issue fresh licenses of international gateway (IGW) andinternational connection exchange (ICX) to break the monopoly business existing in the sector.

"We will change the policy formulated by the past caretaker government within next month and issue new licenses of IGW and ICX," Post and Telecommunications Minister Raziuddin Ahmed Razu told the House in reply to a supplementary raised by treasury bench member Tanveer Shakil Joy. Responding to another question, the telecom minister said the present government has undertaken steps to launch a communication satellite very soon to modernize the telecommunications system to build Digital Bangladesh by 2021.

"Launching a communication satellite is a long-cherished dream and the efforts for procuring money to this end are going on," he said.

The minister also said that the discussion on launching the country's own communication satellite with different countries including the USA and China is also going on as Bangladesh wants to launch it as soon as possible. Answering to written questions raised by ruling party lawmakers Apu Ukil and Meher Afroz, Razu said there are six mobile phone operators in the country and their subscribers till November, 2009, stood at 5,05,50,000.

Of the six mobile phone vendors, he said, Grammenphone has now 2.23 crore subscribers, Banglalink 1.3 crore, AKTEL 89 lakh, Warid 29 lakh, Citycell 20 lakh and Teletalk 11 lakh.

Besides, he said, the number of subscribers of state-run Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) till November, 2009, was 9,52,779. The telecom minister also informed the House that the government has realized Taka 5,692.50 crore as revenue from the six mobile phone companies in the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Of the amount, he said, the highest Taka 1,051.10 crore was realized from Grammenphone, Taka 784.10 crore from Banglalink, Taka 191.50 crore from Citycell, Taka 126 crore from Warid and Taka 48.20 crore from Teltalk.Razu also said that the government has taken up various steps to raise the number of subscribers and income of the BTCL.

The measures, he said, include setting up of a 1.71 lakh-line digital exchange with NGN facility in the old part of Dhaka city at a cost of Taka 197 crore and installation of modern internet equipment at different telephone exchanges in Dhaka city at a cost of Taka 623 crore.

Responding to another question raised by treasury bench member Mohammad Jashim Uddin, the minister said the government has taken ups steps to reform the Postal Department. The reform works have already started, he said.

The steps, he said, include amendment to the Post Office Act,1898, introduction of standard carton for parcel and EMS, providing passport service and building rural post offices as e- centres.

Source: BSS, Dhaka

Cross Posted on: Bangladesh ICT News

Changes at DynDNS.com Service and Active for User

This week DynDNS has made some cool changes to give cool DynDNS experience to it's clients. Bellow is some new feature:

1. Redesigned Homepage - Looking to use DynDNS as a solution for a problem you're having? The homepage lets you jump right to the solution. Definitely helpful for those that aren't familiar with all of our services.

2. Hostname Tagging - Now you can specify what you're using your hostnames for. Tags include DVR, Remote Access, Blog, Photo Gallery, and more. This is particularly helpful if you manage multiple hostnames.

3. New DynDNSCommunity.com - The new community offers community voting on questions/answers, reputation points and service badges, and single sign on for DynDNS.com users. Consider yourself a networking expert or like to help people get their networks up and running? If so, join now.

4. DynDNS Twitter Page - Although we love hearing from you here on Facebook, we'd love to hear from you on Twitter as well. You can follow us at twitter.com/DynDNS

You're going to be seeing a lot more of DynDNS Ninja Squad (DNS, get it?) There on Facebook, Twitter, and various tech blogs in this coming year as they continue their transition that Kyle mentioned here: http://dyn.com/dd-dyn-users-customers-come-first

Enjoy the gift from DynDNS.

Ahamed Bauani
http://blog.bauani.org/