Bringing rural people under info, telecoms services
Chinese company keen to support
UNB
China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) wants to continue work with Bangladesh to bridge the digital gap and help it implement Digital Bangladesh programme bringing people in rural and remote villages under information and telecommunications services, reports UNB.
Our company will continue to put in its best efforts to bridge the digital gap between remote villages and cities and implement Digital Bangladesh plan, Deputy General Manager of the companys International Engineering Department Wang Qingxin told the news agency at his office in Beijing, China recently.
Director of the Party Committee, CMEC, Chen Sihao, official Wei Lijun and journalists from Bangladesh and Nepal were present.
The CMEC, a large construction and engineering company in China which was engaged in introduction of 3G Technology and expansion of 2.5G network for Teletalk Bangladesh
Limited, thinks there will be lot more other future projects from Bangladesh in which they will participate.
Theres a communication demand for people who are living in rural areas, especially who are living in remote villages. We want to help reduce digital gap there, said Qingxin.
Sharing their experience on working with Teletalk, the official said being state-run mobile operator in Bangladesh, Teletalk has a greater responsibility to implement Bangladesh Prime Ministers Digital Bangladesh plan by ensuring communication services at peoples doorstep in remote villages.
The CMEC official claimed that Teletalk was hugely benefited with increased revenues and subscribers through their quality work under the 3G network project. The project is highly valued by both governments.
The operator - Teletalk - now has 3,750 base stations, of which only 1,562 are 3G sites while before June 2012 there were only 1450 2G sites in Bangladesh.
Im optimistic that in future remote villages in Bangladesh will enjoy 4G network services, said Qingxin.
Teletalk sources said the operator is now looking for funds to establish 4G (fourth generation) mobile network in the country.
Teletalk established its 3G network with a $211 million foreign suppliers credit from Chinese Exim Bank.
Asked whether the CMEC faced any difficulties while implementing projects in Bangladesh, Qingxin said they faced some challenges but those were in similar nature any company may face in a developed country like the USA or under-developed country Africa.
We need to handle any challenge properly paying respect to local laws, high officials, local culture and general people, he said.
The official also said they resolved the problems encountered during 3G project under the local laws.
On a question about peoples perception that Teletalk has poor network, Qingxin said when they started planning for 3G network, the Teletalk did not expect that its user numbers will see a massive jump but it happened. Teletalk is now actively attending the problems expanding network.
He also said at this moment it will not be appropriate for him to give more details as many aspects are involved in it.
Soon well know Teletalk has much improved its service.
Teletalk wants to increase its base stations by almost double to offer quality service to its customers, according to Teletalk sources.
Teletalk started its journey as the countrys fifth operator in March 2005 with a capital of only Tk 643 crore. Initially it had the capacity to serve only 40 lakh users. The number has now been expanded to one crore.
The operators revenue reached Tk 969 crore in 2014-15, from Tk 753.69 crore in 2013-14, when its net loss was Tk 20.86 crore.
