The figure is expected to more than double again in the two years till end-2000, raising it to 5,00,000 lines, or around two lines per 100 persons. On the other hand, the entire circuit is digital and all telephones have access to international subscriber dialing to 131 countries. This area is not only under semi-military rule, even the local telephone services are managed by the military, and village level connectivity is very poor indeed, well below the national average of 2.2 per hundred. Physical infrastructure being a limitation, with the country's long route transmission systems mainly composed of microwave, UHF and VHF radio links, Bangladesh is now encouraging the growth of mobile telephony, which is entirely run by the private sector. The railways have built a fibre-optic link along much of the track length, which could help, but the modalities of public access have not yet been determined.
Most new switches are digital, but there is still a legacy of electromechanical switchgear.
The long-range plan is to replace all analogue circuits by digital by the year 2005. The most important expansion and rehabilitation programme being taken up is the laying of 12 core Optical Fibre Cable between Dhaka and Chittagong, which is the busiest route and still analogue. Nepal has decided to move towards extensive VSAT tele-connectivity to alleviate the problems of poor traditional infrastructure, which prevents them from the kind of piggybacking that other countries are now examining. Pakistan is faced with a problem created by the early liberalising of Internet access, which has put a heavy load on a small network. As a result of this monopoly, and not having to subsidise local connectivity from its revenues, it has been an extremely profitable company, with a strong programme for investment in expansion of infrastructure, which accelerated in this decade.