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Dhaka: Bangladesh has launched a mobile phone network in insurgency-ravaged southeastern hills, which have so far been cut off the facility for "security reasons", officials said on Saturday.
Ahmad Fakhruddin, chief adviser to the interim Bangladeshi government, ordered that cellphone connectivity be provided in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
"I hope the cellphone network will contribute to the socio-economic development of people in the three districts," Ahmad said after instructing his special assistant Raja Debashish Roy, also the chief of the major Chakma tribe, to do the needful.
Ahmad said his government gave special attention to the socio-economic development of the hill people as the rugged region was still trying to recover the losses caused during the more than two decades of insurgency until 1997.
The network was launched six weeks after Ahmad promised to provide cellphone connectivity in the three hill districts of Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban during a recent visit to the region.
Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Authority (BTRC) officials said six cellular phone companies operate in the country's fast-growing telecom sector with some 40 million connections. Bangladesh has a population of nearly 150 million.
Telecom ministry officials said the municipal areas of the three hill districts will initially be covered by the cellphone network which would gradually be expanded to other parts of the tribal region constituting one-tenth of Bangladesh in terms of area.
Tribal insurgents fought a more than two decade long battle with the administration demanding self-rule until a peace deal was signed in 1997.
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