The telecoms market in Bangladesh has seen a burst of activity recently after months of announcements and rumours from the market’s regulator and main stakeholders. The Bangladeshi regulator, the BTRC, seems to be committed to improving the efficiency of telecoms through the adoption of infrastructure sharing.
The merger between between Robi and Airtel has been approved, and the government plans to award two tower management licenses to independent companies by the end of the year. This represents strong progress towards the adoption of the independent tower ownership model, as Bangladesh seeks to address its main challenges: a combination of dense population centres and remote rural populations, unstable grid during the monsoon season, and overlapping MNO-captive towers that are ripe for consolidation.
