Summit, AB High Tech to set up 559 mobile towers in next 3 months

Summit Communications Ltd and AB High Tech Consortium Limited will set up 559 mobile towers within next three months for two leading mobile operators, Robi Axiata Limited and Banglalink.

Stakeholders concerned disclosed this plan at a meeting with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Thursday.

Among the two companies, Summit will set up 259 towers for Banglalink, said its managing director Md Arif Al Islam.

He said, "We already inked a service agreement with Banglalink last month in this regard.

"150 towers would be set up by December next and the rest of the job would be done by January 2021," he added.

Meanwhile, AB High Tech Consortium Limited will build 100 towers for Robi by the next month.

In the meeting, Manjurul Hasan, chief executive officer of AB High Tech informed the regulatory commission that they have planned to set up 200 more towers by next three months for other operators.

He also said that they already have inked an agreement with Robi to set up 100 towers, of which 47 towers have already been handed over to the operator after completion. Remaining 53 will be set up by this month.

BTRC Chairman Md Jahurul Haque presided over the meeting. He called upon the all tower construction licensees to work jointly and collaborate with the mobile operators.

Representatives from two other licensees for tower construction: Edotco Bangladesh Co Ltd and Kirtonkhola Tower Bangladesh Ltd also attended the meeting.

BTRC awarded telecom tower licenses to four companies back in 2018, to increase the mobile network coverage area within the country and optimise the utilisation of tower infrastructure. 

The companies are eligible to build, own and maintain telecom towers across the country, and will share their tower infrastructure with mobile network operators (MNOs) taking service fees.