Bangladesh mobile operators lost 170 base station cards and thousands of metres of power cables in Greater Dhaka this year. The spike prompted an urgent petition to regulators for police protection.
Site thefts during the first eight months of 2026 jumped sharply from the 47 base transceiver station cards stolen across the country throughout 2025.
The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh lodged an appeal on September 16 with the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. The industry group called on the regulator to coordinate with national law enforcement agencies to break up criminal networks targeting cell tower hardware. Stolen components include remote radio units, power cables, base transceiver station cards, feeder cables, and backup lithium and lead-acid batteries.
Losses hit both private carriers and state-run infrastructure across industrial and residential zones. Incidents concentrated heavily in Mohammadpur, Badda and Lalbagh within Dhaka, alongside peripheral manufacturing hubs in Narayanganj, Narsingdi, Savar and Gazipur. Grameenphone reported 75 BTS cards stolen through August, up from six in 2025. Robi Axiata recorded 48 stolen cards against 10 in the previous year. Banglalink lost 29 cards compared with nine in 2025. State-owned Teletalk reported 18 stolen cards, down slightly from 22.
The Breakdown Across Dhaka Towers
Power transmission cabling forms the second major target for scrap and resale rings operating around the capital. Grameenphone reported losing 507 metres of power cable by August, compared with 153 metres in 2025. Robi lost 417 metres, up from 211 metres. Banglalink recorded 291 metres lost against 189 metres last year. Teletalk reported the heaviest physical losses, with 6,749 metres of power cable cut and stolen from its installations by August.
Active transmission gear suffered heavy losses as well. Robi logged 157 stolen remote radio units during the eight-month span, compared with 44 across all of 2025. Teletalk lost 76 units. Banglalink and Grameenphone reported 41 and 33 stolen units respectively. Battery losses totalled 756 units across the industry up to August. Teletalk accounted for 452 units, while Robi recorded 253.
Operational Fallout for Digital Commerce
Stripped equipment creates direct operational bottlenecks for digital commerce and retail transactions. When thieves sever power cables or pull base station cards, towers drop offline immediately. Backup generators and batteries cannot bridge the gap when auxiliary electrical systems are stripped simultaneously. For suburban retail clusters, mobile financial service agents and distribution warehouses, blackouts halt point-of-sale systems, digital wallet transfers and real-time inventory tracking.
Replacing active radio units and base station electronics presents a steeper challenge than standard line repairs. Tower operators cannot source specialized radio frequency modules or brand-specific station cards from domestic retail suppliers. Carriers must draw on imported spare parts inventories. They burn cash on unplanned capital expenditure while waiting on international shipments that face customs clearances and shipping lead times.
During the last 20 months, approximately 16,000 metres of power cable, more than 2,000 batteries, and over 500 RRUs have been stolen.
Security Measures and Scrap Market Networks
Carriers have deployed reinforced physical enclosures, electronic tamper alerts and closed-circuit monitoring at high-risk rooftop and ground sites. These measures raise capital costs per tower without eliminating breaches by well-equipped scrap rings. Industry representatives point out that stopping tower theft requires targeting the secondary market of illicit buyers, scrap metal aggregators and unauthorized repair workshops that purchase commercial telecom gear.
Telecom asset theft in Bangladesh has flared periodically as metal scrap prices and electronics component costs rise. In 2019, industry records showed 2,195 tower theft incidents during 2018. Over the past 20 months, cumulative equipment losses reached roughly 16,000 metres of cable, more than 2,000 batteries and over 500 remote radio units across the four operating networks.
Regulatory Action and Police Coordination
Regulators at the telecommunications commission must now decide whether to establish a dedicated multi-agency enforcement task force with district police commands. Operators are tracking whether joint inspection raids on known scrap clearing hubs in Gazipur and Narayanganj begin before the final quarter of the year.
