DHAKA, Aug 15, 2026 (BSS) - Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Major Gen Md Emdad Ul Bari (retd) today called for an in-depth study on Bangladesh’s mobile industry to optimise business opportunities alongside digital transformation and support informed decisions on spectrum pricing and services.

He said BTRC had been asking the industry for the past two years to conduct such a study, but no one had done so.

“As the auction period was approaching, we have engaged a research team of BTRC to conduct a study, but I do not think they will be able to complete such an in-depth study within this short period,” he said while addressing a roundtable dialogue titled “Spectrum for a connected Bangladesh: Enabling Internet for ALL”.

He urged the Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and AMTOB to conduct research on how business opportunities could be optimised alongside digital transformation.

Telecom and Technology Reporters’ Network (TRNB) organised the dialogue at a city hotel with its President SM Masuduzzaman Robin in the chair. General Secretary Faruque Hosain delivered the welcome address.

The BTRC chairman said the study was needed to establish a balance among the interests of people, businesses and the government and ensure informed decisions for the telecommunications sector.

“The government wants to provide services to people. If we do not support business, it will not be able to provide services. But if people do not receive services, we cannot support business,” he said.

He said his starting point would always be whether people were receiving services. “I will not support services to save business; I will support business to save services,” he said.

He called for a general equilibrium among the three stakeholders and said accountability should be created around that balance.

The BTRC chairman said spectrum pricing should not be considered only from the perspective of government revenue, as consumer interests, service quality and business cost efficiency also needed to be considered.

He said Bangladesh had around 2.29 MHz of spectrum per million subscribers, at the lower end of the global standard of 2-6 MHz per million subscribers under GSM standards.

In a 5G scenario, he said, the requirement would rise to 6-12 MHz per million users, while Bangladesh would require around 1,500 MHz by 2035.

He said spectrum pricing also needed to be assessed against regional standards and the benefits passed on to subscribers.

He said Bangladesh's data prices could be considered cheap by global standards but were not necessarily the cheapest in the region, where purchasing power also needed to be considered.

The chairman said the country needed an in-depth study to identify a “sweet point” where government revenue, business cost efficiency and service optimisation could be balanced.

He said BTRC was also undertaking research and wanted to incentivise greater spectrum utilisation, particularly in remote, risky and deprived areas.

He also urged the media to take a 360-degree perspective while reporting on spectrum pricing and related decisions.

He said BTRC would continue conducting research so that its decisions were informed rather than based on assumptions. “So that our decisions are not decisions received in a dream,” he said.