Rural Connectivity.

BTCL has the largest telecommunication infrastructure in the country. It has a plan to mitigate digital divide and reach the unreachable. Majority (70%) of it`s population still live in rural area. Most of Bangladeshis earn their living from agriculture. To ensure rural connectivity BTCL has a plan to connect all of Upazila HQs and unions in phase wise. So that they can reap the benefit of e-commerce, e-health, e-agriculture, distant education through internet. Right now Upazilla HQs are all connected either through optical fiber or MW link. BTCL has ability to connect most of the Dist. HQs (56 No.) and Upazilla HQS (65 No.) which lie on national optical fiber backbone. If we consider District HQs as Upazilla HQs total number of upazilla having OFC connectivity reaches to 121 places. Upon completion of TNDP (JICA financed) project, number of Upazilla HQs with optical fiber connectivity will reach 180. In this phase one location is very difficult due to its geographical position. It is Bhola, the island district situated on the Meghna estuary. There is no other way but to enhance it`s existing MW link by a high capacity STM1 (3+1) radio link. Rest of the Upazilla HQs will be connected through 2 projects pending for GoB`s approval. One project is vital in this context. This Project is called "Optical Fiber Cable Network Development at Upazila Level". Total 290 Upazilla HQs will get optical fiber connectivity (48 core, 8220 Km.) under this project. Rest of the difficult 12 Upazilla HQs will be connected through 'Remote 1000 Union' project and BTCL vows to connect us all by connecting 482 upazila in total.