14.5% mobile towers off service in flood-affected eastern districts
The flood affecting a dozen eastern districts has posed a significant challenge in maintaining mobile network tower services, with 14.5% of the towers already out of service by Thursday evening (22 August).
According to a statement by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), by 5:00pm, 2,015 out of 12,179 tower sites had been disconnected across the districts of Noakhali, Lakshmipur, Feni, Cumilla, Brahmanbaria, Chandpur, Chattogram, Khagrachari, Habiganj, Moulvibazar, Sunamganj, and Rangamati.
Joint efforts of the regulator managed to resume some sites and by 9:00pm the number of down sites dropped to 1,799.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Users suffer mobile network disconnection and poor quality of services when the nearby tower cannot serve.
BTRC opened a central monitoring and control room at its office in the capital to observe the situation and coordinate the efforts to continue telecommunication services in the flood-affected areas.
A 15-member emergency response team headed by BTRC Director General (Engineering and Operations) Brigadier General Kazi Mustafizur Rahman is in charge of the entire task, the statement added.
