Bangladesh’s largest mobile company plans 10,000 3G base stations by June

January 6, 2016 OPINION/NEWS

By

Sheuli Akter

Bangladesh’s largest mobile phone company Grameenphone Ltd. has announced that 100% of its existing 10,000 base stations across Bangladesh will support 3G services by June 2016.

The announcement has been made by Grameenphone CEO, Rajeev Sethi at a hotel in the capital Dhaka in the presence of Telenor Group CEO, Sigve Brekke on Tuesday.

Grameenphone has in total more than 5,500 stations which have already been converted to 3G since the service was introduced in late 2013, said a press release.

In his presentation highlighting the network growth in 2015 the Grameenphone CEO said that 3401 3G stations were added to the network in 2015 taking GP’s total 3G sites across Bangladesh to 5,831 at the close of the year.

“We have made significant investment in 2015 and it is our intention to continue on with this momentum and add nearly 1700 more 3G sites by the end of the first quarter of this year,” Sethi said. “The addition will reach 3G services to nearly 90% of its subscriber base in that time,” he added.

Suggesting that Grameenphone’s network expansion has been all inclusive, Sethi pointed out the recent introduction of 3G services in the newly acquired enclaves of Dohogram and Garati among others are small but significant in the company’s internet for all ambition.

The Grameenphone CEO stressed that the GP network ambition was not just about reach but also about customer experience on GP’s superior network. “Our ambition from the start was to ensure the best customer experience on our network, Sethi said, “Which is why we had invested in 10MHz of 3G spectrum from the onset, according to the release.

Grameenphone has run an aggressive 3G roll-out plan and had covered all 64 districts in 6 months, much sooner than the 36-month conditionality stipulated in the 3G license agreement by the regulator. Moreover, GP’s 3G network has already been expanded across 481 upazillas in the country, the release added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sheuli Akter

Sheuli Akter, from Bangladesh, is a Special Correspondent and Editor of NsNewsWire, (Bangladesh’s First Press Newswire).  Previously she had worked for Bangladesh’ top news agency, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) and top newspaper (now defunct) The Bangladesh Observer. She also gained an honourable mention in the first ever World Media Summit WMS Awards for ‘Exemplary News Professionals in Developing Countries’, receiving the award in Beijing in January 2015.

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