Locally made cell phone set to hit market next year

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/sep/03/busi.html#3

Locally made cell phone set to hit market next year
Nazrul Islam

The state-run Bangladesh Telephone Shilpa Sangstha is set to become the country’s first company to manufacture and market cellular phones early next year and reduce the country’s dependency on import in the fast growing telecom sector.

The BTSS is also getting prepared for low-cost laptop production depending on import of the necessary technology, a parliamentary panel was told on Wednesday.

‘In line with the government‘s Vision 2021 for Digital Bangladesh, the government will try to reduce technological discrimination by providing tele-equipment to the people at affordable prices,’ said the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the post and telecommunications ministry, Hasanul Haq Inu, after a meeting.

The officials said that the government has taken up a number of schemes to produce information technology equipment at competitive prices with the help of imported technology.

The BTSS cell phone is expected to hit the market by February 2010 at the latest. The price range of the hand-sets will be between Tk 1,500 and Tk 10,000, depending on their options and features, said an official of the state-owned Bangladesh Telecom Company Ltd.

The committee’s chairman said that as the government has the necessary infrastructure in hand, it will also produce digital land-phones, which will cost between Tk 500 and Tk 600. These sets will hit the market in November.

At present only imported phones can be found in the market.

‘Once we produce the phone sets locally, we will be able to save a huge amount of foreign currency,’ said Inu, adding that the government is also working on a master plan for production of laptops at the BTSS factory in Tongi.

The factory has also been asked to produce solar panels to help the energy-starved country use clean and renewable energy.

The Bangladesh Cable Shilpa Sangstha, a sister concern of the BTCL located in the southern district of Khulna, was asked to go for production of optical fibre, but it is still manufacturing copper cables.

The committee observed that the demand for copper-based cable has been reduced but the demand for optical fibre was on the rise.

‘The Cable Shilpa Sangstha is capable of meeting 75 per cent of the domestic demand for optical fibre,’ said Inu, adding that it will also continue production of cables being used for domestic electric connections.

The government has already allocated Tk 10 crore for the optical fibre project, he added.

Wednesday’s meeting was attended by the Awami League’s whip and committee member ASM Feroz, Abdul Quddus, Mozammel Hossain Ratan and senior officials of the BTCL and the BTSS.