157 mobile towers restored in flood-hit areas: BTRC
As many as 1,159 mobile transceiver stations (BTS), known as mobile towers, stopped functioning in Sylhet, Sunamganj and Netrokona districts amid heavy rainfalls, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Some 157 of the closed mobile towers have been restored until Saturday evening with efforts underway to restore the remaining ones as soon as possible, the telecom regulator said in a press release on Sunday.
A director of BTRC’s engineering and operations department will lead the monitoring cell that also include members from BTRC’s respective departments and wings.
They are closely monitoring mobile network, optical fibre transmission system, internet service providers and bandwidth management issues in flood-hit areas.
BTRC said there were 2,528 mobile towers in flood-hit areas and these towers stopped functioning after power was discounted, leaving the entire area out of mobile network.
The press release said a toll free number has been opened at the initiative of BTRC to ease the army’s rescue operations in the flood-hit area. Twenty mobile phone sets were provided by the commission. Field workers of the organisations having BTRC’s licence are updating the commission on the situation in the flood-affected areas.
Visiting the flood-hit areas, it was found that the telecommunication infrastructure has been almost out of order in Sunamjganj, Sylhet and Netrokona and restoration of mobile network infrastructure has become challenging.
BTRC said arrangements are underway to supply an adequate number of generators, optical-fibre cables and fuel to provide mobile network and uninterrupted internet services through the employees of mobile operators, nationwide telecommunication transmission network (NTTN) operators, internet service providers (ISP) and other companies concerned.