The participation of private sector in fixed phone service, now mainly provided by state owned BTTB, will create competition in the sector, he said at an investment promotion meeting on Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

The meeting was jointly organised by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) and Infrastructure Investment Facilitation Centre (IIFC) at the DCCI Auditorium.

The BTRC chairman said the age of monopoly in telecom service will soon be over with the advent of private sector. Private entrepreneurs including small and micro operators will be engaged in PSTN service in near future, he added.

For the benefits of subscribers, PSTN operators should adopt proper network engineering and service provisioning guidelines to perform well and ensure service quality, said SD Khan, IIFC field project manager, making a presentation at the meeting.

The registered telecom network demands in the waiting list in Bangladesh totalled to over 2.55 lakh as of July 2002 and the estimated unmet demands in 2002 were around 10 lakh, Khan said in the presentation.

Former BTTB chairman MH Chowdhury said though the telephone infrastructure is "highly capital intensive" this sector has immense business potential for the private entrepreneurs.

DCCI President Matiur Rahman said the BTRC must be made independent in licensing the private operators to meet the extensive demand for speedy and quality service in PSTN, which BTTB alone is unable to deliver.

Leading business personalities including the DCCI members were present at the meeting.