Dhaka: Mobile phone users of Chittagong city are going to enjoy the experiences of 3G services by February 16, as the state-owned cellular phone operator Teletalk is getting ready to offer the services, said officials.

They said all kinds of preparations are nearing completion to offer the high-speed mobile broadband technology in the city and adjoining areas.

Abubakar Siddique, chairman of Teletalk Board of Directors, said that they will start the operation of Teletalk 3G services from February 16 in some areas of the city through selling 3G SIM card.

"The services will be rolled out in the whole city and adjacent areas within February 28," he said.

Siddique, also the secretary of posts and telecommunications Ministry, informed that soon they would start work to provide 3G services in Sylhet city.

The mobile broadband services will be rolled out in Rajshahi, Khulna, Mymensingh, Faridpur and other districts in phases, he added.

Besides, the state-owned cellular phone operator is planned to introduce 2G or Voice service in the world's largest Mangrove Forest Sundarbans within one month, said the secretary.

"We will inaugurate the 2G service in Hiron Point, Kotka and Dublarchar of the Sundarbans by April through installing necessary infrastructures," said Siddique, adding, other parts of the Mangrove Forest are to be brought under coverage in phases.

Officials said Bangladesh entered the 3G mobile services in October 14 last year while the Prime Minister called the President to officially launch the service.

The third generation means it comes after GPRS and EDGE. The advantages of 3G services include faster data connectivity which means one can download faster and web surfing will be a lot more fun.

It will give uninterrupted video streaming on phones, enable video calls and big MMS and be good for data intensive applications.

According to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, until August, Teletalk had nearly 1.4 million subscribers of which only 25,000 subscribers are using its internet connection while the six mobile-phone operators had a combined 99.5 million subscribers.

The benefit of 3G is its higher bit rates which support many bandwidth-intensive applications.

Two main advantages of 3G are high-speed wireless Internet access for efficient use of the available radio frequency (RF) spectrum and the projected expansion in worldwide usage of wireless services.

The other benefits include packet-based data which offers a number of advantages over the existing circuit-switched methods used for transporting mobile voice.

It also allows increased call volumes and support for multimedia data applications, such as video and photography.

Ends/AMA/13/02/13