Grameenphone, as a provider, has reached the milestone of 3000 shared sites recently. This represents the highest number of BTS shared by any mobile company in Bangladesh.
Grameenphone started sharing sites in 2009 after BTRC allowed passive telecom infrastructure sharing, roping in Qubee as the first customer. GP with its superior network quality and the largest number of physical sites is open to sharing of infrastructure for increased resource optimization.
Speaking on the occasion Mainur Rahman Bhuiyan, Head of Infrastructure Business of Grameenphone said,”Since the publication of BTRC guideline regarding Infrastructure sharing in 2008 about 8,000 sites have been shared among operators, which is more than 50% of the total number of BTS established during that period.”
Referring to the news that BTRC is going to issue licenses for mobile tower management and mobile operators are ineligible to apply for license Grameenphone CEO, Michael Foley advocated that,” Mobile operators should be allowed to maintain their existing rights to build, operate, maintain and share towers and the Tower licensee can co- exist so that a competitive business environment prevails in the industry. It will also ensure better network quality for the customers.”
The advantages of Infrastructure sharing are that it helps operators save huge Capital Expenditure, focus on their core business and at the same time contribute to government exchequer through a revenue sharing fee. Moreover, it also helps in conserving natural resources by occupying a lesser land area and using less electricity; thus contributing to the environment as well.