Bangladesh to get digital exchange

The Bangladeshi Government has signed a deal with the American telecom company World Tel to set up a digital telephone exchange in the capital, Dhaka.

The exchange will have 300,000lines.

The Bangladeshi Telecommunications Minister, Mohammed Nasim, said this was the first time the government had licensed a private company to operate a telephone exchange.

Telecommunications ministry officials said the government would soon float similar tenders for private telephone exchanges in other Bangladeshi cities.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service