BTCL or Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited is the largest telecommunications company in Bangladesh. The company was founded as the Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB) following Bangladesh's independence in 1971. This was converted into corporate body named "Telegraph and Telephone Board" by promulgation of Telegraph and Telephone Board Ordinance, 1975. On 1 July 2008, the BTTB became a public limited company and was renamed as BTCL.[2] The Bangladesh government initially owned all BTCL shares, but stated it would sell the shares to the public the following year. The estimated value of BTCL is ৳15,000 crore (৳150 billion). BTCL has a total of 12,636 officials and staff.
BTCL provides land-line telephone services in Bangladesh's urban areas, including domestic long-distance calling and international services as well as internet services. In 2004, the Bangladesh Government issued a number of PSTN licenses to private companies, but they were barred from providing services in the lucrative Dhaka market (which accounts for the majority of the nationwide market). The BTCL monopoly ended when other operators started to receive licenses from 2007.
History
Early history
The Telegraph branch under the Posts and Telegraph Department was created in 1853 in the then British India, and was regulated afterwards under the Telegraph Act-1885.