Ericssion urges 3G supported frequency in Bangladesh

6 May 2009:

The world’s biggest mobile network maker, called on Bangladesh on Wednesday to issue 3G licences so operators can launch mobile broadband services there.

Mobile broadband services, which require the licensing of the 2100 MHz spectrum band for third-generation services, would give many more people access to the Internet as Bangladesh has a high number of mobile phones and comparatively few fixed lines.

“If the government releases appropriate spectrum for 3G, which is the proven global mainstream for the mobile broadband, then we are confident that it will contribute significantly to the country’s GDP growth,” Arun Bansal, managing director of the Ericsson Bangladesh, told a news confrence.

The mobile phone sector contributed 6.2 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP in 2007. Research firm Deloitte & Touche have estimated that mobile communication has raised GDP growth in Bangladesh by 0.12 percent for each 1 percent increase in penetration.

“It is estimated that there are over 6 million mobile internet users and already today 15 percent of the mobile handsets used in Bangladesh market are 3G enabled,” Bansal said.

Bangladesh’s mobile sector has grown rapidly, with the number of users reaching around 46 million at the end of March from 200,000 in 2001, compared with only 1.37 million fixed-line phones.

Analysts have predicted that by 2011 the number of mobile subscribers could top 70 million, which is nearly half the country’s population.

There are six cellphone carriers in Bangladesh, of which five are foreign operators. Grameenphone, controlled by Norway’s Telenor leads the market with 21 million subscribers followed by Egyptian Orascom Telecom’s Banglalink.

Although nearly half of the country’s population is still below the poverty line, the country has been one of the world’s fastest growing cellular markets.

Telecom analysts have said that the 3G broadband services would enable people to get easy access to information on health, education, agriculture and job opportunities.

source: yahoo news

3G in Bangladesh

We have been also hearing about 3G in Bangladesh for quite long time by some media sources and seminars on different times, still we are not very sure about its implementation.

3G:

International Telecommunications Union (ITU): IMT-2000 consists of six radio interfaces

W-CDMA also known as UMTS
CDMA2000
TD-CDMA / TD-SCDMA
UWC (often implemented with EDGE)
DECT

3G Considerations:

Speed
Minimum speed of 2 Mbit/s for stationary or walking users, and 348 kbit/s in a moving vehicle

Service
Converged fixed, mobile, voice, data, Internet and multimedia services. One of its key visions is to provide seamless global roaming, enabling users to move across borders while using the same number and handset

Flexibility
Providing a highly flexible system, capable of supporting a wide range of services and applications. The IMT-2000 standard accommodates five possible radio interfaces based on three different access technologies (FDMA, TDMA and CDMA)

Affordability
3G systems had to be affordable, in order to encourage their adoption by consumers and operators

Compatibility
3G has to be compatible with existing systems. 2G systems, such as the GSM standard

Design
3G must be easily expandable in order to allow for growth in users, coverage areas, and new services, with minimum initial investment

More info: http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/imt-2000/technology.html#Cellular Standards for the Third Generation

 

We already have CDMA2000 in the country, Citycell and other PSTN operators are providing mobile broadband services by CDMA2000 technology. For recent few years our mobile phones has also has got the technology of supporting 3G technology, however we are still stuck at the fact of creating guidelines/ policies etc.

When will we actually get this service?