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First-term liberalisation opens private mobile licences

In 1998 Hasina’s first government opened private mobile-telecom licences, a completed liberalisation that ended a state monopoly path. In the causal graph this event strengthens the driver Industrial-Policy Activism.

Sources: [1][2]

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In 1998 Hasina’s first government opened private mobile-telecom licences, a completed liberalisation that ended a state monopoly path.

Context

BTRC’s predecessor sat. She did not sit as an operator. A licence opening is still a dated industrial-and-access instrument.

1996 PM oath is the neighbouring start. DSA 2018 is a neighbouring much later speech-cost row on the same networks.

Bangladesh’s prime minister chairs the cabinet and can order security forces under statute. She does not write an Indian extradition order, a UN body-count as if it were a gazette, a 2026 Tarique Rahman cabinet minute, or an ICJ merits judgment. She fled on 5 August 2024; as of August 2026 she is in India, not in office. Country is Bangladesh, not Pakistan. A RAB warrant is not a completed finding that every disappeared person was thereby a militant. Allegation of a stolen 2018 count is stored as a contested election, not as a completed steal. A 2026 Delhi audio is not a return.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Sheikh Hasina

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.45 · verified

    Cabinet opened licences. Operators built. Households subscribed with lag.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Reuters — Bangladesh opens private mobile licences in late 1990sReuters · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.BTRC — private mobile licence opening under first Hasina government, 1998Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

Established: late-1990s private mobile licence opening under her first term, independently reported.

Not established: a unique later ARPU coefficient from one licence, or that every village was thereby covered.

Operators built. Households subscribed with lag.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies First-term liberalisation opens private mobile licences, not a later speech about First-term liberalisation opens private mobile licences.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to Cabinet opened licences. Operators built. Households subscribed with lag. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorSheikh Hasina
  2. contributed toFactFirst-term liberalisation opens private mobile licences
  3. strengthensDrivers (2)Industrial-Policy Activism

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). First-term liberalisation opens private mobile licences. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/bd-hasina-telecom-1998

https://factrail.ai/facts/bd-hasina-telecom-1998

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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