BTRC provides new guidelines for setting up mobile towers in border areas

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has relaxed the existing guidelines for setting up base transceiver stations (BTS) of mobile operators to provide telecommunication services in international border areas. The decision was taken by issuing a new guideline regarding the setting up of BTS.

BTS basically refers to the towers used to provide services to mobile operators.

On Sunday (January 19), the BTRC issued the ‘Guidelines for Setting Up BTS in International Border Areas of Bangladesh-2025’. In this, the permissions and time delays related to setting up towers have been reduced in the 2021 guidelines.

According to the new guidelines, only BTRC approval will be required for setting up BTS within zero to three kilometers of the border line in other international border districts except Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Bandarban and Cox's Bazar districts. Previously, requests had to be made to the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), the Directorate General of Defence Intelligence (DGFI) and the Directorate of National Security Intelligence (NSI).

Previously, only the DGFI was required to request permission to set up BTS in the three to eight kilometer area of the border. The new directive states that only the BTRC should be requested. However, in the case of setting up BTS between zero and three kilometers and three to eight kilometers, a provision has been made to inform the aforementioned agencies after getting approval from the BTRC.

In the previous policy, in the case of setting up BTS in other border areas except Cox's Bazar and the three hill districts, if no objection or no objection was received within 45 days after the application was made to various security and intelligence agencies, opinions were sought within the next 15 days. If no opinion was received within this period, it was considered as no objection. The new directive does not contain any restrictions in this regard.