The capital has been out of bounds to the licensing process for fresh fixed phones, technically known as Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), in the wake of a dispute with WorldTel that obtained licence to run fixed phones in the capital in July 2001.

"We hope to open Dhaka to private operators to run fixed phone service," a key BTRC official told The Daily Star. An announcement will be made in this month to enable private operators to apply for fixed phone licence, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

WorldTel Bangladesh served a legal notice on the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in early January asking it not to open up Dhaka city to the other companies. But the huge unmet demand for fixed phones in the capital has prompted BTRC to decide otherwise.

WorldTel, however, has also agreed to commence service in the capital to run 300,000 fixed phones on a build-operate-own basis.

Earlier, the BTRC awarded Bashundhara Communication & Network Limited (BCNL) first licence to run fixed-line phone services in four zones except central zone on May 13.

The BTRC has segmented the country into five zones namely Central, South-East, North-East, South-West and North-West zones. It awarded licences for four zones except the central zone comprising Dhaka city, Jinjira, Savar, Narayanganj district headquarters, Gazipur district headquarters and Tongi.

The telecoms watchdog earlier decided to award fixed phone licence to three more private operators to increase Bangladesh's tele-density, which is the lowest in South Asia.

Westec Limited, QC Telecom Limited and Jalalabad Telecom Limited (JTL) have qualified for the fixed phone licence.

Bangla Phone Limited and Ranks Telecom Limited have also preliminarily qualified but are required to fulfil certain criteria, BTRC officials said.

Private operators would be able to meet a huge demand for fixed phones in the capital through prompt deployment of either CDMA 2000 1x or wireless local loop (WLL) technology that enables phone without wired network, the BTRC official said.

Currently, state-owned Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) enjoys monopoly in providing fixed line telephones in the capital. About half of the BTTB's over 800,000 telephones are in Dhaka.

Westec Limited and QC Telecom Limited will launch service in South-East Zone consisting of Brahmanbaria, Comilla, Chandpur, Lakshmipur, Noakhali, Feni, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Khagrachhari, Rangamati and Bandbarban.

The JTL would launch operations in North-East zone including Sunamganj, Sylhet, Habiganj, Moulvibazar, Sherpur, Jamalpur, Netrakona, Mymensingh, Kishoreganj, Tangail, Munshiganj, Manikganj, Narayanganj excluding the district headquarters, Gazipur excluding the district headquarters, Tongi, Dhaka excluding Dhaka city, Jinjira and Savar.

Bangladesh's teledensity is still the lowest in South Asia, according to the statistics of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Only 1.56 of 100 people have access to telecoms facility, the 2003 data of the UN telecoms watchdog say.

Cell-phones outnumber fixed line telephones in Bangladesh, which has 0.55 fixed line telephone per 100 inhabitants. The number of mobile phones per 100 people stands at 1.01.

Apart from the BTTB's fixed phone, Bangladesh Rural Telecom Authority and Sheba Telecom also provide a few thousand fixed phones via WLL technology. The cellular phones provided by four operators in foreign joint ventures number about 2,300,000.