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Telecommunication

Landmarks in the history of telecom industry in Bangladesh

The erstwhile Telegraph branch under Posts and Telegraph Department of the government was reconstructed as Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Department under Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 1971 and again as Telegraph and Telephone Board in 1975. In 1979 Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) was given the right to issue license for telecom and wireless services.

In 1981, Bangladesh got its first Digital Telex Exchange. Automatic Digital ITX started in Dhaka in 1983. BTTB introduced Coinbox Telephone services in 1985 and GENTEX Telegraph messaging services. In 1989, Bangladesh Rural Telecom Authority got license to operate exchanges in 200 upazilas and privately owned Sheba Telecom got license to operate exchange is 199 upazilas. The same year cellular mobile phone company Pacific Bangladesh Telephone Limited and Bangladesh Telecom got license.

In 1995 Regulatory power of BTTB was transferred to Ministry (MoPT) and the same year the 2nd and 3rd ITX were installed in Dhaka. The monopoly of Pacific Bangladesh Telephone Limited in cellular telephone services came to an end with the grant of license to GrameenPhone and Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh in 1996. In 1998, the country got its first Telecom Policy.

In 2000 BTTB went into Global Telecom Service (GTS) Telex Exchange venture with British Teleco. The next year Telecommunication Act was enacted, to establish Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). In 2002 the Government issued ICT Policy. From earlier decade 3 mobile operators, namely Citycell, GrameenPhone and Aktel were in operation in Bangladesh. in 2004, BTTB owned Teletalk cellular mobile launched. Next year, Egypt-based Orascom acquired Sheba Telecom and launched Banglalink.

In 2006 NGN was introduced in BTTB. In 2008 BTTB converted into Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) with 100% shares owned by Government. The Submarine Cable Project transformed into Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL). The same year Japanese NTT DoCoMo bought 30 percent stake in Aktel and Bharti Airtel acquired 70 percent stake in Warid Telecom. In 2009 Internet Protocol Telephony Service Provider (IPTSP) Operators launched.

• 2010 : Aktel rebranded to Robi Axiata Limited
• 2012 : 3G mobile service is introduced by state owned Teletalk in October.
• 2013 : 3G auction held for private companies
• 2014 : 64 districts covered with 3G by Teletalk Grameenphone, Banglalink and Robi
• 2016: Robi and Airtel were merged on 16 November 2016 and Robi set sail as the merged company.
• 2018 : 4G auction held for private companies
• 2018 : on 19 February 4G mobile service is introduced

1970s

Bangladesh Television Head office moved to Rampura in 1975.

News agencies were present in Bangladesh prior to its independence from Pakistan in 1971. The state-owned Associated Press of Pakistan (AAP) had branches in Dhaka and Chittagong from 1949. After independence, the AAP was replaced by the Bangladesh state-owned agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha on January 1, 1972. The second news agency to be established, and the first to be privately owned was Eastern News Agency (ENA). It was founded in Dhaka in the years immediately prior to the Bangladesh Liberation War. However, the freedom of press was significantly curbed quite early in the history of the country. One of the many restrictive regulations coming from the enactment of single party rule of BaKSAL was the promulgation of the Newspaper Ordinance (June 1975; Annulment of Declaration)- which allowed only four state owned newspapers (the Dainik Bangla, Bangladesh Observer, The Daily Ittefaq, and Bangladesh Times) to continue their publication and banned the rest of the press and newspaper industries. Later, After the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, many newspapers that were banned earlier started to reappear. Press Institute of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Press Council were established.

Government control was absolute in broadcast media landscape as well. The erstwhile autonomous East Pakistan station of Pakistan Television was brought under Government control after independence of Bangladesh, and started its refreshed journey as Bangladesh Television from 15 Sep 1972. Till the end of the decade BTV operated as the sole television transmission station in the country and aired its programmes in black and white format only. In 1975, the offices of the TV station were moved from the initial location of DIT Bhaban (present Rajuk Bhaban) to its new home at Rampura, Dhaka.

Radio played an important role during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. On March 26, 1971, the broadcasting centre of Radio Pakistan was used to transmit a declaration of independence, which was picked up by a Japanese ship in Chittagong Harbor and got retransmitted. During the war, the Pakistan Army took over the Radio Station in Dhaka and the Bangladeshis operated Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra (Independent Bengal Radio Station) clandestinely. Because of heavy shelling, the station had to be relocated several times, and ultimately moved to Calcutta on May 25, from where it would broadcast until the end of the war. On December 6, 1971 the station was renamed Bangladesh Betar. It continued to operate as the only state-owned radio station of the country. In 1975, after the coup d'état the station was renamed as Radio Bangladesh.

1980s

In the 1980s the Government continued to maintain tight control over the mass media. In March 1982 General Hossain Mohammad Ershad ordered the suspension of a number of newspapers and made penalty provisions for criticizing Martial Law. In this environment the newspapers continued to operate and a few notable publications started their journey - including Daily Inqilab and Jaijaidin. In 1988, United News of Bangladesh was founded as the country's first fully computerised privately owned news agency.

Bangladesh Television, the state-owned television network, started transmission in colour-format from the beginning of the decade. It continued to serve as the only television network available in the country throughout the decade. The state-owned Radio Bangladesh (later renamed Bangladesh Betar) was the only radio station in the country. It shifted its head office to the National Broadcasting House, Agargaon in 1983.

1990s

With the return of a democratically elected government in 1991, the freedom of press situation of the country improved. The interim government relaxed some of the restrictions on the press imposed in the earlier decade. Later, the Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina governments did not fulfill their ‘Three-Alliance Framework’ to repeal or amend the regulations which infringed on freedom of the press. Several influential national dailies started their circulation in this decade, including The Daily Star in 1991; Bhorer Kagoj in 1992, Ajker Kagoj, Janakantha and Financial Express in 1993, The Independent in 1995, Manab Zamin in 1997 and Prothom Alo in 1998. By the end of the decade, the new entrants outnumbered the old market leaders both in terms of influence in shaping public opinion and market circulation.

Bangladesh Television, the only state-owned Television network in the country, started broadcasting private production in 1994. In 1995 the Government allowed international satellite channels to be televised commercially. On July 15, 1997, the first Bangla private satellite channel ATN Bangla started operation and it was followed by Channel i in 1999. The state-owned Radio Bangladesh was renamed back to Bangladesh Betar in 1996 and it continued to operate as the only radio network in the country.

2000s

In the 1990s the country saw explosive growth in the number of newspapers in publication. The trend continued in the following decade. Jugantar and Samakal were the two notable additions to the landscape of daily newspapers in the 2000s. Moreover, country's first online news outlet, bdnews24.com, started its operation in 2005 which was a transformative change for the print media of the country. Earlier online Bangladeshi newspapers were merely a static copy of the printed version, but bdnews24.com and later prothom-alo.com started giving realtime news updates on their site - which revolutionalized dissemination of information in Bangladesh.

Although BTV launched BTV World in 2016 it faced fierce competition from private TV Channels. One notable development in 2000 was the launch of the country's first private terrestrial TV channel - Ekushey TV (ETV), which covered half the country's population and "turned out to be the most popular channel offering brisk, highly professional, and path-breaking programmes". However, in 2002 the BNP-led Government shutdown ETV, on the ground of technical reasons, but the conventional wisdom was that the channel was being punished for its partisan role. In the post ETV era, many new private TV channels mushroomed and competed with older channels to take a share of audiences. NTV, RTV, Banglavision, Boishakhi TV and Desh TV were among the new channels which started their journey in this period.

While Television viewership persistently increased from 31% in 1995 to 42% in 1998 and 61% in 2002; the number of people with radio exposure decreased from 42% to 24.1% from 1998 to 2002. The rapid increase in availability of television from the late 1990s and the subsequent years was the major reason behind the fall of radio listenership. Although private TV channels were already available, the radio network was still controlled by state-owned Bangladesh Betar in this decade.

2010s

In 2015, the Ministry of Information licensed 28 private radio stations, making the commercial radio sector an important one in the country's media environment.