Bangabandhu Satellite will uphold the image of the country, said Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar.

“We should not consider the satellite as only a commercial venture. It'll show the world that Bangladesh is going to open a new horizon in the outer space,” he added.

Mozammel Haque Babu, managing director and chief editor of 71 TV, however, said, “We could be in trouble as the satellite's position in the orbit is not convenient for us. The satellite will be placed into the orbital slot at 119.1 degrees east—this is a big challenge because it has 26 Ku-band transponders out of 40 transponders that are generally not used for TV stations.”

Ku-band will cover Bangladesh and its territorial area of the Bay of Bengal, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines. On the other hand, C-band will cover Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and portions of Kazakhstan.

Illustrating the problems of Ku band, Babu said: “We can't air television programme using this band because this frequency will not function in case of even a drop of rain. So, we are interested in the 14 C band.”

“But we wish the Bangabandhu satellite a complete commercial success,” he added.

Replying to him, the minister and BTRC chairman said that they were well aware of the limitations of the satellite.

"But there is a new technology that can get a better performance from the Ku band. We think there would not be any problem for the TV stations,” said the minister.

“The Prime Minister has made the dream of Digital Bangladesh a reality. Before her, nobody contributed towards the country's digitalization,” said Abdul Jabbar.

About celebrating the satellite launch, the minister said: “A 42-memebr delegation will be present in Florida. The satellite launch will be celebrated across the country. We've started working with Bangabandhu-1. We'll now concentrate on launching Bangabandhu-2, 3, 4 into space. In fact, Bangabandhu-2 will be indispensable as a supplementary satellite.”

Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Ltd managing director Md Saiful islam, telecom expert Abu Syed Khan and AND telecom chief operating officer Naim Mohammad Fazlun also spoke on the occasion. TRNB general secretary Samir Kumar Dey presented a keynote paper on the occasion.

On 21 October, 2015, the Cabinet Committee on Purchase had approved the purchase of the satellite system and accordingly the BTRC signed a treaty with the French company Thales Alenia Space at a cost of around Tk. 2,000 crore.

Last year, a loan agreement of Tk. 1400 crore with the HSBC Bank was signed for the satellite launch.

Ground stations have been set up in Joydebpur under Gazipur district and Betbunia under Rangamanti district for the purpose.

Manufactured by the Thales Alenia Space of France, Bangladesh will operate satellite from 119.1o East using a payload comprising 14 C-Band and 26 Ku-Band transponders to deliver focused telecommunications coverage to Bangladesh. One transponder is equivalent to 36 MHz.

EA