This is a pervasive and deeply frustrating issue for the vast majority of mobile users of Grameenphone, the mobile telecommunications operator in Bangladesh experience poor call quality, slow data speeds and dropped connections-is the daily reality outside the core urban centres, and even within parts of major cities.
While 4G coverage maps of Grameenphone, look impressive on paper, the ground reality is different. Meanwhile interestingly Telecom operators, Grameenphone, commercially launched pursuit of next-generation (5G) technology.
A telecommunications expert told the Daily Observer on Wednesday, "This isn't an isolated problem with a single cause but rather a systemic failure resulting from a combination of commercial priorities, regulatory challenges and infrastructural limitations."
Grameenphone used limited Spectrum though Bangladesh has a huge population with a user base of 86.51 million subscribers as of a recent report.
The radio frequency spectrum (the 'airwaves' that carry data) is a finite resource allocated by the government. Grameenphone, needs more spectrum to improve service quality.
Abdur Rashid a GP SIM user told this correspondent that GP networks become especially slow when I visit at my village home in Chandpur.
"It is still not that satisfactory," he added. "If you want to watch Ultra High-Definition videos, you will need 25Mbps speed, but we don't have that," he added. "It means that it is not enough for maximum quality service, he said.
A 4G tower is only as good as its connection to the main internet backbone. This connection is called 'backhaul,' and it's ideally done via fiber optic cables. In many semi-urban and rural areas, towers are connected via microwave links which have lower capacity and are more susceptible to weather, creating a major bottleneck.
Urban areas have a high density of cell towers to handle the load. Rural areas have towers spaced far apart. This means each tower has to cover a larger area and serve more people, stretching its capacity thin and leading to weaker signal strength at the edge of its coverage zone.
The regulator, BTRC, has set Quality of Service benchmarks. However, enforcement and penalties for failing to meet these benchmarks have not been strong enough to force a nationwide infrastructure overhaul. Operators can often pay a fine, which becomes just a cost of doing business, rather than fixing the underlying issue.
Another experts of telecommunications said that term Grameenphone, set up 'very low quality infrastructure outside major cities of BTS' (Base Transceiver Station, or cell tower)
To maximize profit, GP might connect a very large number of users to a single rural BTS that has limited capacity (backhaul bandwidth). During peak hours (evenings, weekends), this tower becomes congested.
The hardware might be fine, but it's like having a great water pump connected to a very thin pipe-it can't handle the demand, leading to very slow speeds and drop-offs. This is the most common cause of the 'low quality' experience, he added.
Grameenphone, deploy the minimum required infrastructure to provide coverage, which becomes severely congested and provides a poor user experience. This business-driven decision, compounded by real infrastructural challenges, is what leads to the widespread perception of a 'low-quality BTS network' across the country.
A high official of The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said they are aware of these issue of poor call quality, slow data speeds and dropped connections-is the daily reality outside the core urban centres, and even within parts of major cities.
Another aspect is that if telecom companies want to transmit high-speed data, they will have to change their infrastructure too, he added.
