Grameenphone Ltd. has recently installed two hybrid solar-powered base station sites in Bangladesh.
The solar-powered base station is globally quite a new concept and has been installed in only a few countries so far. The two sites, set up on an experimental basis, at Habiganj have been designed to discharge power to the base stations for three consecutive days, without any sunlight to recharge. This backup system will ensure Grameenphone's network availability in case of any prolonged inadvertent shutdown of the national power grid.
“This is another pioneering initiative by Grameenphone. It will not only help overcome the electricity supply problem but it will also be good for the environment,” observes Grameenphone CEO Anders Jensen. “If these pilot installations are successful we will set up more such solar-powered base stations in other areas of the country in the near future.”
The two projects have been implemented with technical assistance from Rahimafroz and Add Power respectively. While setting up these solar-powered base stations are quite expensive, the cost of maintenance of the sites is quite low.
Grameenphone has the largest network with the widest coverage around the country, bringing 98 percent of the population under the coverage of its network. The company recently commissioned its 10,000th base station. These 10,000 base stations are located in about 5,700 sites around the country.
The entire Grameenphone network is also EDGE/GPRS enabled, allowing GP subscribers to access the Internet from anywhere within its coverage area.
The company has so far invested more than BDT 10,700 crore (USD 1.6 billion) to build the network infrastructure since its inception in 1997. It has invested over BDT 3,100 crore (USD 450 million) during the first three quarters of the current year while BDT 2,100 crore (USD 310 million) was invested in 2006 alone.
Grameenphone is implementing an aggressive roll-out program by installing new network elements with an emphasis on maintaining quality service. A number of steps are being taken to identify the problems spots in the network in order to constantly improve quality.
Special efforts are being taken to constantly monitor and ensure network quality in the urban areas. In Dhaka and other major cities in-building coverage solutions and microcells have been deployed to provide improved coverage in important high-rise buildings and busy street junctions.

Information Department
Grameenphone Ltd.
Phone 9882990
email: info@grameenphone.com