Dhaka, May 23 (UNB) – As half of the local telecom market is now ready for the third generation technology, Posts and Telecommunications Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju on Wednesday said the government would introduce the 3G service from July next.

“We’ll introduce the 3G service from July next in the country,” he told a meeting with Deputy Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Houlin Zhao at the Secretariat.

3G or third generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and mobile telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 specifications by the ITU.

During the meeting, the minister informed the ITU top official about the government initiatives taken so far to develop Bangladesh’s telecommunications and information technology sectors to international standard.

“The revolutionary changes achieved in the country’s telecommunications sector would expedite economic progress,” he said.

Raju said the number of internet users in the country jumped to 18 percent from the 3 percent in the last three years while teledensity saw a sharp rise posting a 53-percent growth from 25 percent during the same period. “It’s a bright example of progress.”

He also said the internet bandwidth has been upgraded to 85 GBPS (A gigabit per second) from 7 GBPS.
 
Houlin Zhao said Bangladesh is a country of potential in the region and appreciated its progress in the IT sector and its role in the ITU.

The ITU official assured the government of providing all possible support from the ITU for the development of Bangladesh’s IT sector.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Zia Ahmed and additional secretary SM Showkat Ali were also present at the meeting.