Dhaka, Jan 21 (UNB) – Mobile phone users in Bangladesh will soon be able to know if their phones have been imported through the legal channel.

The telecom regulator has already made an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number database of phones that have been legally imported.

Now, the Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has taken an initiative to introduce short code ‘16002’. 

“With this, mobile users can learn whether their IMEI numbers are included in the BTRC database,” Zakir Hossain Khan, BTRC senior assistant director, told UNB over phone on Monday.

Once the BTRC database is in operation, users can have their stolen phones locked, if their IMEI numbers are included in the databank.

Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar will inaugurate the short code on Tuesday at the BTRC office.

Cape Canaveral, Jan 18(AP/UNB) — The moon, Earth and sun will line up this weekend for the only total lunar eclipse this year and next. At the same time, the moon will be ever so closer to Earth and appear slightly bigger and brighter than usual — a supermoon.

"This one is particularly good," said Rice University astrophysicist Patrick Hartigan. "It not only is a supermoon and it's a total eclipse, but the total eclipse also lasts pretty long. It's about an hour."

The whole eclipse starts Sunday night or early Monday, depending on location , and will take about three hours.

It begins with the partial phase around 10:34 p.m. EST Sunday. That's when Earth's shadow will begin to nip at the moon. Totality — when Earth's shadow completely blankets the moon — will last 62 minutes, beginning at 11:41 p.m. EST Sunday.

If the skies are clear, the entire eclipse will be visible in North and South America, as well as Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and the French and Spanish coasts. The rest of Europe, as well as Africa, will have partial viewing before the moon sets.

During totality, the moon will look red because of sunlight scattering off Earth's atmosphere. That's why an eclipsed moon is sometimes known as a blood moon. In January, the full moon is also sometimes known as the wolf moon or great spirit moon.

So informally speaking, the upcoming lunar eclipse will be a super blood wolf — or great spirit — moon.

In the U.S., the eclipse will begin relatively early Sunday evening, making it easier for children to stay up and enjoy the show. Plus the next day is a federal holiday, with most schools closed. But the weather forecast for much of the U.S. doesn't look good.

Parents "can keep their kids up maybe a little bit later," said, Hartigan, who will catch the lunar extravaganza from Houston. "It's just a wonderful thing for the whole family to see because it's fairly rare to have all these things kind of come together at the same time."

"The good thing about this is that you don't need any special equipment," he added.

Asia, Australia and New Zealand are out of luck. But they had prime viewing last year, when two total lunar eclipses occurred.

The next total lunar eclipse won't be until May 2021.

As for full-moon supermoons, this will be the first of three this year. The upcoming supermoon will be about 222,000 miles (357,300 kilometers) away. The Feb. 19 supermoon will be a bit closer and one in March will be the farthest.

Dhaka, Jan 17 (UNB)- Huawei would never allow Chinese government to access customer data, even if Beijing requested it, the CEO and founder of the company said Tuesday.

In a rare sit down with international media, Ren Zhengfei addressed concerns raised by the US, which has warned that the company's equipment could allow the Chinese government to have a backdoor into a nation's telecommunications network. 

Ren said he would “definitely” refuse any request from the Chinese government to access the company's user data. He said his longtime affiliation with China's ruling party would not affect his ability to fight against that same government if it requested user data.

"When it comes to cybersecurity and privacy protection we are committed to be sided with our customers. We will never harm any nation or any individual," Ren told the journalists assembled at Huawei's headquarters in Shenzhen.

"Huawei and me personally have never received any request from any government to provide improper information," Ren added. "The values of a business entity is customer first, is customer centricity.”
 

Dhaka, Jan 16 (UNB) - Mobile phone operator Robi on Wednesday conducted a non-commercial trial of Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) technology for the first time in Bangladesh. 

This makes Robi the first operator to complete its readiness for offering voice service on its 4.5G network. 

Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar attended the VoLTE trial run programme as the chief guest and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) acting chairman Md Jahurul Haque was present as a special guest.

The first-ever trial of VoLTE service was conducted through making a voice call by the minister to the acting the BTRC chairman.

Robi Managing Director and CEO Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Shahed Alam along with the company’s senior management were present at the programme held at the Robi Corporate Office located in Gulshan.

Robi’s VoLTE service delivered on its nation-wide 4.5G network will enable customers to make high definition voice calls with faster call set up time. With VoLTE technology, the mobile phone users can avail both voice and data service. VoLTE treats voice as just another application that rides on the LTE data network.
 

Dhaka, Jan 16 (UNB) - Mobile phone operators will not be allowed to offer internet packages with less than seven-day validity from January 27, said the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Wednesday.

The telecom regulator will send letters to mobile phone operators soon in this regard, BTRC’s acting Chairman Jahurul Haque told a views-exchange meeting with ‘Telecom Reporters Network Bangladesh’ members at its office. 

“Ensuring quality mobile network and data service is our big challenge this year,” he said. 

BTRC received 2,947 complaints about mobile phone services last year and disposed of 2,838 of them, the acting BTRC boss said.

BTRC Commissioner Rezaul Kader said mobile phone operators would be ranked based on their service qualities. “Customers can choose operators after checking the ranking,” he said. 

“We want to start 5G services in 2020. We’re working on it,” said BTRC Commissioner (Spectrum) Aminul Hasan.