Dhaka: Bangladesh today threw open it’s key economic Central Zone, which includes the capital Dhaka, to private landline operators amid hopes it can attract an immediate 200 million dollar investment.
"We have invited bidding from private land phone operators for the country's Central Zone," chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, Omar
Faruq said.
"We hope both local and foreign companies will be interested to operate in this most promising zone which includes Dhaka city and some adjoining industrial towns," he added.
The Central Zone was excluded when the telecom regulator in 2004 ended its monopoly in the country's fixed line telecom sector and invited private sector investments.
Faruq said he expected private companies to start operations in the Central Zone in the second half of the year.
16 private Bangladeshi companies hold licenses to operate land phones in various parts of the country but they have complained that their growth has been stunted because the Central Zone has been off limits to them.
Bangladesh has been witnessing explosive growth in mobile telephony in the past few years with the number of subscribers leaping from 3.6 million in early 2005 to more than 10.2 million at the end of February this year.
But growth in the number of land phones has been negligible due to the monopoly enjoyed by the state-run Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), which own more than 95 per cent of the 1.25 million-strong market.
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