About the BTTB (Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board) mobile phone service, the prime minister had earlier this month told parliament the service would be available in March.

But a BTTB report submitted to a parliamentary body yesterday indicates it is unlikely to fulfil the prime minister's assurance.

The progress of work on BTTB mobile phone service is being hampered due to difficulties in having power connection to different cable stations. Bangladesh Telecommu-nication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has not yet allocated required frequency to the BTTB and it cannot also start preparing SIM cards as the BTRC is yet to allocate the series number, sources said quoting the report.

Responding to a query from an opposition lawmaker during question-answer session, the prime minister yesterday assured the House of submarine cable connection by July-August.

But the BTTB report submitted to the parliamentary standing committee on estimate said the Tk 657 crore submarine cable project will be completed in October.

A proposal is now being processed to set up optical link between Cox's Bazar-Chittagong and Dhaka. A cable station has already been set up, said the report.

Earlier on December 28 last, the prime minister inaugurated the much-talked- about BTTB mobile phone service but it is yet to be available to people.

" The BTTB has started setting up the hardware of the high speed internet connection via mobile phone called GPRS and it hopes to start testing it on March 25," the report however said.

Meanwhile, the BTTB has also hired top floors of 80 houses and set up machines on some of those.

On private mobile companies, members of the parliamentary body said their call charge is high and asked the authorities to initiate steps to lower the rate.