Dhaka, Sept 18 (UNB) – Bangladesh Communication Satellite Company Limited (BCSCL) has appointed Thai firm Thaicom Public Limited Company as the consultant for commercially launching the activities of Bangladesh’s first geostationary communications satellite Bangabandhu-1 abroad.

BCSCL Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood told UNB on Tuesday that they hired the Thai firm for the next two years for expanding the commercial activities of the satellite.

He said Thaicom Public Limited Company will work for developing coordinated market for the satellite.

Earlier, Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar said Thales Alenia Space which developed the Bangabandhu-1 will hand over the satellite to Bangladesh within this month and its commercial activities will start at the end of the month.
 
State Minister for Information Tarana Halim had also said her ministry has urged all private television channels to use the Bangladeshi satellite alongside BTV for broadcasting their programmes.

Bangladesh entered the elite Space Club of 57 nations with the launch of its first geostationary communications satellite into the orbit by US space transport company SpaceX on May 12.

The satellite was launched using the latest version of SpaceX's upgraded Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, from the historic Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

Two ground stations -– one in Betbunia of Rangamati and the other at Joydevpur of Gazipur -– have been set up to control the satellite.
 

Dhaka, Sep 18 (UNB) - The country’s premier e-commerce site, robishop.com, is offering exclusive pre-booking facility for purchasing the latest exciting handsets from Motorola.

Customers can pre-book Motorola Moto E4 Plus, Moto E5 and Moto E5 Plus till 24th September from robishop.com.

The Motorola Moto E4 Plus, Moto E5 and Moto E5 Plus are priced at Tk. 11,990, Tk. 14,990 and Tk. 19,990 respectively.

These exciting new handsets come with a large display with advanced cameras that snap crisp, gorgeous photos even in low light.

Moreover, with massive battery capacity, fast performance, impressive loudspeakers and stunning design, these handsets promises to herald a new era of entertainment through a mobile device.

All these handsets come with amazing gift items (Motorola Bag/Cap/T-shirt/Bluetooth Speaker), 15 months warranty, 0 per cent EMI for six months and 4GB free data (2GB regular and 2GB 4.5G) with 30-days validity.

In addition, the customers can enjoy 100 per cent bonus data volume upon purchasing any existing data pack above Tk 100 within nine months of purchasing any of these handsets.

Customers can pre-book the Motorola devices from robishop.com using EMI facility or online payment. Cash on delivery option is also available.

Tokyo, Sep 18 (AP/UNB) — Electric drones booked through smartphones pick people up from office rooftops, shortening travel time by hours, reducing the need for parking and clearing smog from the air.

This vision of the future is driving the Japanese government's "flying car" project. Major carrier All Nippon Airways, electronics company NEC Corp. and more than a dozen other companies and academic experts hope to have a road map for the plan ready by the year's end.

"This is such a totally new sector Japan has a good chance for not falling behind," said Fumiaki Ebihara, the government official in charge of the project.

For now, nobody believes people are going to be zipping around in flying cars any time soon. Many hurdles remain, such as battery life, the need for regulations and of course safety concerns. But dozens such projects are popping up around the world.

A flying car is defined as aircraft that's electric, or hybrid electric, with driverless capabilities, that can land and takeoff vertically, according to Ebihara.

They are often called EVtol, which stands for "electric vertical takeoff and landing" aircraft. All the flying car concepts, which are like drones big enough to hold humans, promise to be better than helicopters, which are expensive to maintain, noisy to fly and require trained pilots, Ebihara and other proponents say.

"You may think of 'Back to the Future,' 'Gundam,' or 'Doraemon,'" Ebihara said, referring to vehicles of flight in a Hollywood film and in Japanese cartoons featuring robots. "Up to now, it was just a dream, but with innovations in motors and batteries, it's time for it to become real," he said.

Google, drone company Ehang and car manufacturer Geely in China, and Volkswagen AG of Germany have invested in flying car technology.

Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. said they had nothing to say about flying cars, but Toyota Motor Corp. recently invested $500 million in working with Uber on self-driving technology for the ride-hailing service. Toyota group companies have also invested 42.5 million yen ($375,000) in a Japanese startup, Cartivator, that is working on a flying car.

The hope is to fly up and light the torch at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but it's unclear it will meet that goal: at a demonstration last year the device crashed after it rose to slightly higher than eye level. A video of a more recent demonstration suggests it's now flying more stably, though it's being tested indoors, unmanned and chained so it won't fly away.

There are plenty of skeptics.

Elon Musk, chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc., says even toy drones are noisy and blow a lot of air, which means anything that would be "1,000 times heavier" isn't practical.

"If you want a flying car, just put wheels on a helicopter," he said in a recent interview with podcast host and comedian Joe Rogan on YouTube. "Your neighbors are not going to be happy if you land a flying car in your backyard or on your rooftop."

Though the Japanese government has resisted Uber's efforts to offer ride-hailing services in Japan, limiting it to partnerships with taxi companies, it has eagerly embraced the U.S. company's work on EVtol machines.

Uber says it is considering Tokyo as its first launch city for affordable flights via its UberAir service. It says Los Angeles and Dallas, Texas, and locations in Australia, Brazil, France and India are other possible locations for its services.

Unlike regular airplanes, with their aerodynamic design and two wings, Uber's "Elevate" structures look like small jets with several propellers on top. The company says it plans flight demonstrations as soon as 2020 and a commercial service by 2023.

Uber's vision calls for using heliports on rooftops, but new multi-floored construction similar to parking lots for cars will likely be needed to accommodate so many more EVtol aircraft, once the service takes off.

Unmanned drones are legal in Japan, the U.S. and other countries, but there are restrictions on where they can be flown and requirements for getting approval in advance. In Japan, drone flyers can be licensed if they take classes. There is no requirement like drivers licenses for cars.

Flying passengers over populated areas would take a quantum leap in technology, overhauling aviation regulations and air traffic safety controls and major efforts both to ensure safety and convince people it's safe.

Uber said at a recent presentation in Tokyo that it envisions a route between the city's two international airports, among others. Savings in time would add up, it said.

"This is not a rich person's toy. This is a mass market solution," said Adam Warmoth, product manager at Uber Elevate.

Concepts for flying cars vary greatly. Some resemble vehicles with several propellers on top while others look more like a boat with a seat over the propellers.

Ebihara, the flying-car chief at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, says Japan is on board for "Blade Runner" style travel — despite its plentiful, efficient and well developed public transportation.

Japan's auto and electronics industries have the technology and ability to produce super-light materials that could give the nation an edge in the flying car business, he said. Such vehicles could be tested first in uncongested, remote areas or between islands, where public transport is less accessible and safety issues would be less of a problem.

Just as the automobile vanquished horse-drawn carriages, moving short-distance transport into the air could in theory bring a sea change in how people live, Ebihara said, pointing to the sky outside the ministry building to stress how empty it was compared to the streets below.

Flying also has the allure of a bird's eye view, the stuff of drone videos increasingly used in filmmaking, tourism promotion and journalism.

Atsushi Taguchi, a "drone grapher," as specialists in drone video are called, expects test flights can be carried out even if flying cars won't become a reality for years since the basic technology for stable flying already exists with recent advances in sensors, robotics and digital cameras.

A growing labor shortage in deliveries in Japan is adding to the pressures to realize such technology, though there are risks, said Taguchi, who teaches at the Tokyo film school Digital Hollywood.

The propellers on commercially sold drones today are dangerous, and some of his students have lost fingers with improper flying. The bigger propellers needed for vertical flight would increase the hazards and might need to be covered.

The devices might need parachutes to soften crash landings, or might have to explode into small bits to ensure pieces hitting the ground would be smaller.

"I think one of the biggest hurdles is safety," said Taguchi. "And anything that flies will by definition crash."

Dhaka, Sep 17 (UNB) – The edotco Bangladesh (edotco BD), an integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company in Bangladesh has recently completed the transfer of 20 percent of its shares held by Robi Axiata Limited. 

This will result in edotco BD becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of edotco Group in line with the conditions set by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). 
 
In August, edotco announced that it has been selected by the BTRC to obtain a conditional tower sharing license. Upon completion of the conditions, this license will allow edotco to build and manage telecommunications towers for multiple mobile network operators in the country.
 
As part of the conditions, edotco BD, cannot retain a mobile network operator as its shareholder. With the transfer, edotco BD moves one step closer to fulfilling the conditions for tower license eligibility.
 
Rahul Chaudhary, Country Managing Director of edotco Bangladesh said “We have been working closely with Robi and our local partners to ensure a smooth transition. We are confident we will be able to fulfill all the conditions within the set timeframe. 

We are looking forward to receiving the complete license and are determined to keep serving the telecommunication industry in Bangladesh”. 
 
The edotco BD, has been at the forefront of the country’s tower infrastructure landscape since 2013, providing end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector from tower leasing, co-locations, build-to-suit, energy management, transmission and operations and maintenance. The company recently announced Getco, a Bangladesh-based conglomerate as a 30 percent shareholder and strategic partner. 

Through its subsidiary Greencon Tower Company Limited, Getco will partner with edotco to provide next-generation infrastructure to meet the country’s growing connectivity needs.
 

Dhaka, 16 September 2018: Robi is offering the live streaming service of all cricket matches of the ongoing Asia Cup cricket tournament through its sports entertainment content platform, My Sports. 

My Sports is an SMS, WAP, IVR, and APP (Android, iOS) based sports service, said a press release on Sunday. 

Users can subscribe to this service through any of these channels and charging will be at a single point. There will be no additional charge for any content; although, data charge will be applicable. 

Users can subscribe to this service through the mobile application (http://bit.ly/MySportsApp) or by sending START SP or SPW to 22222 or through the portal: http://mysports.com.bd/ or simply by dialing 22222. 

After getting subscribed from any channel, users can enjoy the full service from the mobile app, SMS, IVR, and WAP. 

There are two packages available: daily and the five days duration. The daily package is charged at Tk 2.44 and the five days package is available at Tk 6.09. The price is inclusive of VAT, surcharge and supplementary duty.

My Sports came into prominence with the live streaming of all the matches of the recently concluded World Cup football tournament. Besides, the platform also streamed live matches of the entire India Premiere League (IPL) tournament, held recently. Football enthusiasts are also enjoying live streaming of all the matches in the ongoing English Premiere League.