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Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday posted the guidelines called "Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN)" on its website.
According to the guidelines, private entrepreneurs -- both local and local-foreign joint ventures -- can develop, build, operate and maintain the NTTN to provide services for licensed operators.
At present, the metropolitan cities and towns are cluttered with hazardous overhead optical fibres and access optical fibre networks built by the multiple operators in the same areas.
"De-cluttering the city areas and towns and minimising the waste of national resources are also the objectives of the NTTN," BTRC says.
NTTN licensees will not be allowed to provide telecommunication services directly to users. ANS (Access Network Service) operators and licensed telecom operators can use the NTTN resources to provide telecommunication services for users.
ANS operators mean the PSTN, cellular, cable service providers, broadband service providers, ISPs and others who provide telecom services directly to users.
If the private operators come forward to invest in the network-developing sector, operating costs will be decreased significantly, the industry insiders observed.
The operators, who are struggling to ensure good network coverage, will have the network on the rental basis from the NTTN license holders.
The BTRC fixed the fee for NTTN licence at Tk 3 crore. The license holders have to pay Tk 25 lakh a year in licence renewal fees.
According to the guidelines, NTTN licensees will have to follow a rollout obligation to take the network up to upazila headquarters.
In line with the guidelines, foreign shareholding is limited to a maximum of 60 percent. The foreign partner will have to invest in foreign currency directly, equal to his percentage of ownership. No loan from any Bangladeshi financial institutions such as bank and leasing company can be raised for the foreign part of the investment.
For NRBs (non-resident Bangladeshis), BTRC has approved a maximum of 70 percent of investment. The NRB investment must be made directly in foreign currency and no bank loan can be raised from any Bangladeshi scheduled bank or financial institution for the investment.
NRB or foreign entity must have a Bangladeshi partner.
The licensed mobile phone operators, broadband operators, shareholders of the mobile phone companies, BWA Operators in Bangladesh will not be eligible to apply for this licence.
Related:
BTRC finalises guidelines on NTTN licences
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