Launching the country’s first Satellite ‘Bangabandhu-1’ has been started to implement as Bangladesh Telecomm-unication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has appointed project director and opened project office to carry out consultation with the foreign experts, reports BSS.
“The commission appointed its deputy director Golam Razzaque as project director and approved other issues including setting up project office at a meeting on Monday,” the telecom regulatory body chairman Major General (retd) Zia Ahmed told BSS on Tuesday.
The project director and two other staffs have started their work from Tuesday at the new office which was set-up on the 5th floor of the BTRC headquarters, Ahmed said.
Besides, the BTRC will sign an agreement with the United States based consulting firm ‘Space Partner International (SPI)’ for the project soon as the firm has been selected through open competition.
“We will ink the agreement with SPI within this month to accelerate the work as the ministry has already approved the firm as consultant,” the BTRC chief said.
“The commission appointed its deputy director Golam Razzaque as project director and approved other issues including setting up project office at a meeting on Monday,” the telecom regulatory body chairman Major General (retd) Zia Ahmed told BSS on Tuesday.
The project director and two other staffs have started their work from Tuesday at the new office which was set-up on the 5th floor of the BTRC headquarters, Ahmed said.
Besides, the BTRC will sign an agreement with the United States based consulting firm ‘Space Partner International (SPI)’ for the project soon as the firm has been selected through open competition.
“We will ink the agreement with SPI within this month to accelerate the work as the ministry has already approved the firm as consultant,” the BTRC chief said.
As many as 25 experts from the consulting firm and six local experts will work together to assess the market, process of marketing and future prospect of the satellite. The expert will also give necessary training and ground station management work.
The consulting firm ‘SPI’ have to be paid Taka 87 crore as fee.
This initiative of launching own satellite will help to implement the government’s ‘digital Bangladesh’ campaign successfully, Ahmed added.
Taking to the news agency, Project Director Golam Razzaque said at present the country’s all television channels, Internet service provider, V-SAT and Radio are using foreign satellite to run their activities.
For using the satellite, each TV channel has to pay US$ 2 lakh annually as rent, Razzaque said.
The country’s 19 television channels are paying approximate US$ 40 lakh annually to continue their transmission.
But the satellite, whenever come to operation, will able to earn the whole project cost within five years, Ahmed said. The satellite will have a 15 years life span.
