Internet in Bangladesh

Saturday, 23 January 2010

In the early nineties, Bangladesh had access to email via dialup to Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) of a few local providers. The combined Internet users of all the email-only service providers were not more then 500. Users were charged by the kilobyte, and mail was transferred from the BBS service providers to the rest of the world by International dialup using UUCP (Unix to Unix Copy Protocol).

In June 1996, the Government allowed VSAT's to be operated in the Private Sector, although to be provided solely by the Government owned Telephone Operator, BTTB. Only a handful of ISPs were connected within the first year. However, more liberal Government policies followed in the subsequent years which led to a rapid expansion of this industry, eventually resulting in over 180 registered ISP's by 2005. ISPs are currently regulated by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission through the Bangladesh Telecommunications Act. In October 2005, the submarine cable was connected to Cox's Bazaar. However, due to the re-tender process and the slow work of the winning bidder the link between Cox's Bazaar and Chittagong was not completed until May 2005.

The internet penetration of Bangladesh is one of the lowest in Asia Pasific. In one of the recent press release the CEO of Grameenphone hope that the total number of internet user of Bangladesh will be nearly 20 million by the year 2020. The WiMax operators, BTCL and the obvious mobile operators are doing from their end to spread the internet service to the every corners of the country. As per BTRC we will soon connect to another submarine cable, which will ensure the back-up of current connection and increase internet bandwidth of the country. Another project Fiber-to-Home is also very promising for the development ICT sector of the country. We are also soon entering into space era. Bangladesh will launch her own satellite within very near future. All these shows some real promise. We hope soon the price of internet bandwidth will be reduced to the affordable limit of the people of Bangladesh.

The expansion of internet also depends on the price of internet enable devices. We are all ready enjoying the tax-free computer equipments. Government put 0% tax on any sorts of computer related hardware and equipment for the betterment of ICT sector. So the price of computer is very reasonable in Bangladesh compare to many countries. In recent scenario the expert of the ICT sector of the country, recognized the mobile SIM-TAX as one of the barrier of the development. The lower penetration of landline, the widely spread mobile network can be the only feasible end mile solution of internet in Bangladesh. As soon as the internet penetration is getting higher the current 2.5/2.75 G mobile network would not be sufficient for the services. So Govt. should soon to introduce the next generation technology licensing that the demand of more bandwidth and availability of the service will both happen simultaneously.

Though the history of the internet in Bangladesh was not so sweet, we can see there are lots of things make us to believe that e-divide of Bangladesh will be reduced very fast and the service of internet industry will be better.