Report

P ROSPECTS FOR THE TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR UNDER SAFTA 169
ing that Members would not challenge each other’s
accounting rates under the WTO’s dispute settlement
regime. Further, it was agreed that the understanding
would be reviewed no later than the commencement
of the new services negotiations, from 1st January 2000.
However, certain countries included exemptions to the
MFN rules with respect to their accounting rate systems.
4 of 6 SAFTA members included exemptions in their
schedules.
Country by Country Commitments and Offers and
a Comparison with the Applicable Regime
Bangladesh
Bangladesh is one of the poorest, most densely populated,
and LDCs in the world. Its fixed line teledensity
(about 1%) remains the lowest in South Asia. The
overall situation in the country’s telecom sector has been
improved to some extent in recent times by a rapidly
expanding mobile market. After a number of years of
strong growth, mobile penetration reached about 22%
at end of July 2007, at par with most of its regional
neighbours. However, with almost 99% of homes
lacking a telephone and with a four year waiting list
for fixed-line services, the country is still struggling with
some of the most underdeveloped telecommunications
infrastructure in the world. About 80% of the telephone
lines are in Bangladesh’s four main cities, while 80%
of the population lives in some 86,000 rural villages.
Fixed lines services are mostly provided by the stateowned
Bangladesh telegraph and telephone board
(BTTB), while mobile services are provided by six
private operators.
It is expected that the government will continue to
vigorously pursue the de-regulation process. Expanding
the national telecom infrastructure remains a priority.
A critical factor is that Bangladesh has some of the
most underdeveloped telecommunications infrastructure
in the world. The national telecommunications
policy, issued in March 1998, offers broad intentions
for market liberalisation. The Bangladesh telecommunications
regulatory commission (BRTC), established
in January 2002, is pushing new initiatives to open up
competition in local loop services, rationalise the spectrum
policy and establish formal controls over interconnection
to stimulate penetration and improve quality
of service.
Several significant initiatives have been taken by
BTRC as of early 2004. Absence of an effective interconnection
regime had been one of the major weaknesses
of the sector. Service providers were prone to
predatory pricing and to refusing access to competitive
operators. An estimated 85% of calls originating on
mobile networks failed to complete on the public
switched telephone network. This forced subscribers
to maintain accounts from multiple providers due to
the challenges of connecting calls between networks.
Over time, GrameenPhone has emerged as the largest
mobile provide and dwarfs both fixed line and mobile
competitors in number of subscribers.
After years of delay, an interconnection regime has
finally been put in place with performance, service
quality, network availability or pricing obligations
imposed by the Government. Following resolution of
the interconnection issue, the fixed line network was
thrown open to competition. Four Licenses have been
issued in September 2007, but BTTB expectedly
remains the dominant operator. The benefits of
introducing competition in PSTN will appear in the
near future.
Other topics that have been high on the government’s
list of priorities include VOIP. The gray market
for Internet telephony has exploded in recent years.
BTRC has announced an international long distance
policy (ILDP) 2007 which invited bids for licenses to
operate international gateways and VOIP services. The
ILD market is finally gearing up for ‘legitimate’ competition,
which until now was being provided by grey
market VOIP providers. Other important initiatives
include the restructuring and corporatisation of BTTB,
and comprehensive technical assistance for BTTB, BRTC
and the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.
Comparison of the applicable regime described
above and the commitments made by Bangladesh in
1997 reveals a significant disparity (see Appendix, Table
15.3). Bangladesh has committed to license only two
operators, in addition to the Government operator, to
supply domestic long distance and local voice services
as well as transmission facilities (leased circuit services).
Crucially however, no bypass of government owned
operator is permitted. The commitment however,
included full competition in voice and data transmission
over closed used groups and for internet access services.
Table 15.3 Key Telecom Indicators for Bangladesh
Population 144
Fixed lines 1.44
Fixed teledensity 1%
Mobile phones 32.37
Mobile density 22%
http://www.btrc.gov.bd/circular.htm