Experts, during an event on Tuesday, said that the overall ecosystem in Bangladesh is not ready to deploy 5G on a full scale, as the relevant application of the technology by businesses is one of the biggest challenges for a purposeful commercial rollout of the service in Bangladesh.
They said this at an event titled “5G: Possibilities, Challenges and Way Forward,” jointly organized by the Telecom and the Technology Reporters' Network Bangladesh (TRNB) and Robi Axiata.
While most countries have already completed research and development projects to identify and customize the application of 5G, Bangladesh's progress on the matter remains unsatisfactory.
However, industries and factories that are state-of-the-art and rely heavily on data transmission, could adopt the technology on a case-to-case basis.
Before launching 5G, it is imperative to ensure collaboration between the government and multi-stakeholders to address current usage by means of taxation (on user), regulation, local content, use cases and coverage barriers (fragmented licensing, discriminatory tax on operators) and so on.
The experts also said that there are not many precedents for the usage of 5G in the country and it is challenging to introduce it locally, as the mindset among the most important stakeholders, the local industries, needs to be shifted.
According to the Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar, the use case for business as well as the readiness of the customers should be taken into account before rolling out 5G.
“We should proceed with 5G deployment on a use case maturity basis and limited scale deployment,” Khaled Mahmud, an associate professor of the Institute of Business Administration at the University of Dhaka said.
Mahmud suggested that regulators of respective sectors should collaborate and formulate policies to encourage industries to adopt IR 4.0 and 5G technologies by incentivizing early adopters.
Mohammed Shahedul Alam, the chief corporate and regulatory officer of Robi Axiata, believes that there is huge potential in 5G and if introduced in the country, both the telecom industry and consumer segment need to tap into the technology.
“However, if stakeholders do not collaborate in creating 5G use cases, we will not be able to properly reap the benefits of this technology,” the top brass said.
Some experts and industry insiders have earlier pointed out that 5G is designed to do a variety of things that can transform our lives, and its use would result in smarter logistics, advanced healthcare, modernized mining and much more.
However, data analysis showed almost two-thirds of data being consumed locally being used for Youtube and social media content, which may raise questions about the investment in 5G being a meaningful one right now.
On top of that, amid forex reserve constraints, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) has put Teletalk's 5G expansion project on hold for now.
Planning Minister MA Mannan has announced: "The prime minister thinks Teletalk's 5G project is not needed right now. Its 4G service needs to be ensured first in all parts of Bangladesh." He further said: "Not just Teletalk. All mobile operators have been asked to increase their 4G coverage.”
On the other hand, according to some industry insiders, the reach of mobile networks has galloped with over 95% of the population covered by 4G mobile broadband networks with massive investments being made in the sector, and despite the rapid expansion of 4G coverage, there is still a significant usage gap of 67%.
The lag between 4G coverage and the share of 4G connections only goes to emphasize that demand does not automatically follow supply, they said.
“Many of the stakeholders in this sector are not ready for 5G as they need to be prepared,” Shyam Sunder Sikder, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said during the event.
He also said that the regulator is ready to provide all kinds of support to mobile network operators to bring 5G technology to the country.
Speaking to Dhaka Tribune about the challenges of rolling out 5G, Syed Almas Kabir, the former president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (Basis) and current president of Bangladesh-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BMCCI) said: “5G network is needed for taking advantage of the 4IR technologies. Internet of Things (IoT), industrial automation using robotics, remote medical care etc can only be done if uninterrupted, high-speed broadband internet is widely available. 5G networks can ensure this.”
However, deploying 5G networks and upgrading the older networks are still quite expensive. Until the mobile operators find it commercially viable, they would be reluctant to put their investment in.
Due to the lack of localized content for government services, education, healthcare etc, as well as the absence of applications that demand high bandwidth, the use of the 5G network will be limited, he added.
“As a result, it will not generate enough revenue for the operators. Moreover, the anticipated license fee is very high making it even more difficult for the investors to justify the return on investment,” he further said.
