Grameenphone works of 3G expansion have been disrupted due to current political unrest, said a senior executive.
This situation might delay the implementation of the mobile phone operator’s whole country coverage plan with the fastest mobile broadband data service.
“The 2G expansion across the country required us more than 10 years when it was supposed to be in 5-6 years. Political instability is disrupting our expansion works,” Medhat El Husseiny, chief technology officer (CTO) of Grameenphone, told Dhaka Tribune.
In an interview recently, he said they had reached more than half of the population with 3G in the past one and half years and their 2G coverage is more than 99% now.
Medhat worked for various international companies based in different countries before joining Grameenphone in October 2014.
Along with three other private operators, Grameenphone got 3G licence with 10 Megahertz spectrum in September 2013 and started to build their modern service network in a short time.
By March 2014 the Grameenphone had covered all the 64 district headquarters.
About 3G, the CTO said: “We have to be realistic. This is very hard to reach areas with the 3G where the 3G-enabled handset penetration is very low. However, we have a different plan for those areas.”
Medhat said the current political situation has added woes to it.
“The non-stop blockade has created much problem for our works.”
Despite the situation he is optimistic that the 2015 will be a year of strengthening 3G expansion works and making the service better.
Medhat, however, declined to disclose any investment plan in network development.
He said they had recently introduced online Service Quality Management System (SQMS), which connects all the networks of the country for monitoring. “I think this system makes us special in the country in providing quality service.”
Medhat said if the Grameenphone got technology neutrality, they could offer “much better and cheap services” to the customers.
Medhat said: “Telecommunication is only a tool to connect and empower the people. We are working here to build an e-Bangladesh.”
About the quality service Medhat said the deployment of 3G network also touched 2G network and at the same time the number of subscribers increased.
“Three to four years back, how many subscribers were then? So it has created an impact on the service quality, especially the voice quality,” Grameenphone CTO said. Grameenphone’s average call drop rate is less than 1%, which is one of the lowest in developing countries, Medhat said.
Regarding roll-out 4G service in Bangladesh, he said the operators might not be able to launch the service this year due to “the absence of the necessary telecom ecosystem.”
“Bangladesh market is not ready yet for the new technology, as most users do not have 4G-enabled handsets,” said Medhat adding it is hard to tell when the market for 4G will be prepared.
Prices of most 4G-enabled devices range between $100 and $150 per handset, he said.
If handset prices fell in the coming days, it would facilitate 4G adoption in the country, he added.
