The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Catching up with arch rival B-mobile, TashiCell on December 3 launched Third Generation (3G) mobile wireless network in the capital.
TashiCell’s chairperson Wangchuk Dorji said his company was delighted to inform the clients that it has crossed yet another milestone on its journey towards providing efficient and reliable means of communications by rolling out 3G mobile wireless networks (HSPA+) in Thimphu, Paro, Phuentsholing, Gedu, Punakha and Bajo.
“I think basically the reason that the 3G is introduced is because technology is migrating from 2G with time and the usage of data is becoming more on cellular networks. As far as you can see, 3G has lots of value added services which have been launched around the world. So, it is more used these days but we will be slowly launching 4G as well,” he said.
TahsiCell’s managing director Tashi Tshering said, while 3G technologies were there from before, his company opted not to adopt it owing to lack of market for high priced services. “The price to purchase technology was high, today the cost curve has come down and technology has deployed in many more networks, many equipment vendors so the cost has come down,” he said.
The director also said 3G services will be rolled out to remaining dzongkhags in the near future, in line with market demands. “For extension to other dzongkhags, we have core networks deployed and major parts of investments are already made, now depending on area; we will roll out the service,” he said.
TashiCell has opted to use 850MHz band for its 3G services to provide better coverage, both indoors and outdoors. While most of today’s high end mobile devices from vendors like Apple, Samsung, Sony, etc readily support this band, mid-range devices, especially those sold in the Indian market may not support this band.
TashiCell is in discussion with few mobile device manufacturers to address this issue.
Currently, TashiCell has about 1, 50, 000 users across the country.
