With the completion of the ground station inside the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) compound next month, television and mobile services are expected to reach all the corners of the country, according to Communications Minister DN Dhungyel.

The minister was responding to a question from North Thimphu MP Tshering who asked when would every household of Soe, Naro and Lingshi gewogs under Thimphu receive television and internet services.

The three gewogs on a pilot basis were provided with BBS channel I and II, and internet services from April this year. “This being a pilot basis, other gewogs were only given BBS channels,” minister said. “So, not all the households of the three geowgs have access to television and mobile services.”

He said that more than half of the ground station is completed. After the disk is installed at the ground station, he said each household in the 20 dzongkhags, 205 gewogs, and 1144 chiwogs would have BBS channels I and II services.

Currently, the down-linking is done at the Delhi hub, India before distributing the BBS channel I and II signals to the remote gewogs.

Pilot projects for Serthi and Lauri gewog centre under Samdrupjongkhar, and Langdurbi and Digala in Bardo gewogs under Zhemgang have been successful.

Minister said the people in these gewogs are receiving and utilising the service well.  

Drukjeygang Tseza MP Karma Dorji asked what the ministry was doing to improve B-mobile service. Minister said that although Tashi Cell service is better than B-mobile, people should be aware that B-mobile was established a long time back and that the users have kept on increasing. “When new users opt to use B-mobile, the old technologies cannot handle it.”

He said that the company is upgrading its technologies to improve quality, network, and services.

Karma Cheki