India own 5G stack will be ready around September-October, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday as he urged nations to look actively at these indigenous telecom stacks for cost and quality advantage. Speaking at an event organised by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the minister said India's indigenous telecom stacks mark "big fundamental technological advancements". The Minister also noted that bridging the digital divide has become even more crucial in a world where technology is playing a key role in economic development, and added the Government is directing all its efforts to ensure inclusive growth. "5G stack is also very much in good, advanced stage...by somewhere in September-October India's own 5G stack will be ready," Vaishnaw said. He exhorted the international delegates -- who were attending the high-level ministerial session organised by the telecom regulator -- to look actively at Indian 4G and 5G technology stacks, and assured that these will be "good on cost, and on quality". "It will be really a great contribution to your telecom consumers in your countries. I am talking about big fundamental technological advancement which is in the Indian 4G stack. Please use it," the minister said. The Centre is making all-out efforts for inclusive development, so that government programmes and schemes benefit the marginalised sections of society and those living in far-flung areas. "In today's world where technology has taken a primary role in the economy, in this world, if the digital gap is not filled up by conscious effort, then the digital divide is going to accelerate significantly and we will not be able to fulfil or bridge that divide," he said adding that the government is persistently working to bridge the digital divide through various measures. Vaishnaw went on to cite significant initiatives in this regard including enhancing connectivity in far-flung areas via USO support (Universal Service Obligation Fund), the creation of open public digital platforms in areas such as payments, healthcare, logistics and education, and the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan for integrated planning and development of infrastructure. Speaking on the occasion, Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman said that the quality of service is an important "moving target" and observed that as technology evolves, the quality "expectations also go up". "Consumer expectation in terms of download speeds, in terms of latency of the system remains an important target for the Government. This is a good opportunity for all of us to look back at what we have done, to try and see how we can push the quality of service to the next level," Rajaraman said. The roll-out of 5G services, expected in the later part of the year, will enable a new realm in the quality of services as well as new types of services, he said. TRAI Chairman, PD Vaghela said that digital technology is changing service delivery in education, healthcare, agriculture, energy, and other sectors. In this context, he called for an enabling, collaborative approach among various sectors for framing of policies and regulations.   Source: The Economic Times

Prime Minister's Information and Communication Technology Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy has revealed the launching of 5G service in the country to take place at the end of this year.   "We are aiming to launch 5G and planning to pilot it at the end of this year," he said at a business roundtable in New York.   The government is pledge-bound to provide broadband internet to the last mile, he said, adding Bangladesh actually doesn't have a shortage of capacity and bandwidth.   "We have plenty of capacity and plenty of fibers (Optical fiber)," he said, noting that the bottleneck being faced is the last mile connection.   Joy observed that people (users in the last mile) are not connected with the internet through fixed lines rather they use mobile internet.   He continued, "So, the challenges we face is spectrum incapacity. Because of our population density, we need a lot of spectrum and just shared additional spectrum in auction, and we are in the process of freeing more spectrum for the mobile operators."    Mentioning that they've launched 4G a few years ago, he said ". . . we are hoping that the additional spectrum will allow the mobile operators to take 4G to the rural areas (last mile)."    He went on saying, "with this together (4G and 5G) we are trying to solve the last mile problem . . . as there is plenty of capacity and fiber within the country and connecting the outside."    US-Bangladesh Business Council organized the business roundtable on September 21 in honor of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is now in New York to attend the 76th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).    The Premier virtually joined the roundtable titled "Bangladesh Forward: The New Frontier for Growth" from Lotte New York Palace in New York on Tuesday.    Highlighting the country's mobile network coverage, the ICT Adviser said in the last two years, they've launched online identity (KYC) and just a few weeks ago, introduced another service that enables instant payment to any bank account in Bangladesh.    Until now (before the launch of this service) it took up to two days for payment, he added.      Joy urged the participants at the roundtable to look into these, saying, "You can't miss these services coming online. Your system can connect to them . . ."    He said they are also in the process of piloting a few other digital payment systems as well and one is IDPP that allows the MFS to interconnect in the country.      "So, these are services we are in the process of launching and happy to work with you on connecting to these and any other ideas you may have," he added. Source: BSS AH

The government is going to start fifth generation internet service 5G in the country. With this aim an experimental display will take place on Wednesday. Prime Minister’s Information and Communication Technology Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy delivered the information through a facebook status. Sajeeb Wajed Joy wrote in the status, at the moment I am stuck in traffic but can get the 4G internet service sitting in Dhaka like America. Though we have introduced 4G service few months back but the coverage seems to me very good. For this purpose I am expressing thanks to the telecom companies. This is another milestone achievement to implement Digital Bangladesh by Awami League government. We will hold an experimental display of 5G technology tomorrow (Wednesday). A decision in a meeting on June 12 was taken that government will begin this experimental transmission with cooperation from international telecom organization Huawei. The experimental activities will start at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital on Wednesday. This type of decision was taken about 5G after four months of 4G spectrum auction. Though the mobile phone operators yet to able to start full-fledged 4G network. Earlier, Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar said, we have missed three industrial revolutions, now Bangladesh has to be established as the leading country of fourth industrial revolution. The whole world will enter into 5G service by the year 2020. Our country should not be made staying behind. AH       

Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar has said that the experimental 5G service will be inaugurated in the country in next June. He said this at a discussion organized by Junior Chamber International (JCI) at a hotel in Gulshan of the capital on Saturday. Mustafa Jabbar said, we have missed three industrial revolutions, Bangladesh should be established as a leading country in the fourth industrial revolution. The whole world will enter into the era of 5G in the year 2020. The country will not be allowed to stay behind from this. He said, technology will move the world from one sphere to another. We have to see whether the existing education system is suitable or not for the forthcoming new sphere or fourth industrial revolution. There is no alternative to build the young generation as skillful through crash program. The minister said ICT division is implementing five training related projects. Besides, BITM has offered training for 16 thousand people. It will complete training for 23 thousand people by December. He said, Bangladesh will be able to create manpower suitable for twenty first century through working in an integrated way. JCI president Mark Brian Lim, national president Fayez Atiqul Islam, BASIS director Mostafizur Rahman, BASIS president Syed Almas Kabir and managing director of Microsoft Bangladesh Sonia Bashir Kabir also spoke on the occasion. AH    

Amid the introduction of fourth generation (4G) mobile phone service in the country last month, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is now mulling over going for most advanced 5G service as soon as possible. The telecom regulator has started thinking about running the ground work to adopt necessary policy and preparation to introduce the super fast service without much delay. Reports BSS.  ‘Experts from International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will be invited soon for the consultation on 5G service,’ said BTRC Chairman Dr Shahjahan Mahmood. He said South Korea has already introduced 5G technology in limited scale while the USA is ready to introduce it soon. ‘If we can start the ground work quickly, it would help us to offer the service to the mobile phone users as early as possible,’ added the BTRC Chairman.  Earlier on February 20 last, BTRC handed over 4G license and technology neutrality to the mobile network operators (MNOs). Immediately after getting the license, three private MNOs -Grameenphone, Robi and Banglalink introduced 4G service in all divisional headquarters and some big towns.  Within few days, they made announcement of starting 4G service in all the districts across the country.  The BTRC has given 36 months time-frame to the MNOS for 4G rollout across the country.  In 1997, Bangladesh introduced 2G services and the subscribers’ base was 1.08 crore in 2002. After introduction of 3G, the total users rose to near 15 crore in 2018 while the internet users stood at over 8 crore. AH