The telecom regulator has started its initial preparations for awarding licences to carriers for 5G mobile data service in 2020, said Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday.

In a meeting with the Telecom Reporters' Network, BTRC Commissioner for Spectrum Management Md Aminul Hassan said along with the carriers, the BTRC would have to do a lot of work this year to ensure smooth 5G service in 2020.

"We've asked all mobile network operators to give presentation regarding 5G …"

At the meeting, BTRC's acting chairman Md Jahurul Haque said in July last year Robi tested 5G service and had achieved their expected high-speed data transmission.

He described the 4G service launched in February last year as a massive success. "… In 4G we already got a total of 1.17 crore users and this numbers is increasing every day."

Haque said the number of 3G users stood at 6.35 crore at the end of the year.

With 4G, a consumer could get at least 7.5mbps speed in Bangladesh. In theory, 5G could deliver over 1gbps speed.

He said at the beginning of 2018, Bangladesh was using 575 Gbps of bandwidth, but at year end, it was 913 Gbps, which proves that growth lies with data and that's why faster data transmission system is required.

At the meeting held at his office, Haque said 1.19 crore new mobile connections and 1.08 crore internet connections were added in 2018.

There were 15.70 crore active SIMs and 9.13 crore active internet connections as of December 2018, according to the BTRC.

With the Mobile Number Portability introduced last October, 1.06 lakh customers switched carriers keeping their phone numbers.

Haque said as per the regulator's decision, carriers would not be able to sell data packages with less than seven day's validity from January 27.