. PHOTO: Syed Zakir Hossain

THE internet service providers got an opportunity to give their extensive services exposure through the 'Internet fair 2004'.

Organised by the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (Ispab), over 65 stalls including three of foreign companies and 44 ISPs showcased their services and products.

Solution providers, publication houses and official sponsors filled the other stalls. The four-day internet fair that drew a huge crowd generated great enthusiasm came to an end on April 18.

Almost all the ISPs at the fair offered 10-20 percent discount on prepaid connections along with attractive gifts such as mugs, key rings, T-shirts and free internet cards. The broadband service providers tried to explain their services such as bandwidth shares, distance coverage, line of sight and non-line of sight wireless internet, ethernet and radio link. A free browsing section organised by Bdcom was crammed full of crowd during the fair hours.

SpeedCast, one of the leaders in internet broadcast based in Hong Kong, participated at the fair along with Eyebill of USA and Globetek Infosys of India.

SpeedCast Ltd. is a joint venture company established by TechSystem Limited and Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat). It is currently serving a number of ISPs in Bangladesh. Eyebill is a voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) billing system and Globetek Infosys is a solution provider with Linux-based software that has set up over 50 organisations in Bangladesh including Bangladesh Online, Bijoy Online and Proshikha net.

'Akkhorbangla', a Bangla software developed by Bangladesh Online that converts Bangla words typed in English to Bangla characters was the crowd-puller at the fair.

A number of seminars were held at the fair focusing on major impacts on VoIP, E-Commerce and ICT-based operations.

Alcatel, a leading solution provider, held a seminar on their local projects and DSL technology on April 18. While making a presentation at the seminar, Christian Looten, country manager, Alcatel, Bangladesh said, "Alcatel has been given the project of SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable network along with Fujitsu on a turnkey basis. The cable will land in Cox's Bazar. Alcatel is currently working with the BTTB and TMIB Aktel and holds 37 percent share of the global market."

On the same day, two VoIP billing software were also presented. Rezaul Hassan, CEO, Reve systems, a local company, introduced their VOIP software 'itelbilling', a real time, accurate billing and monitoring software. The software is compatible with Cisco products.

The other VoIP software was presented by Eyebill. The product presentation was made by Emil Nikolov, CEO, Eyebill. "The software is a unique one-pin concept providing security with web billing solutions and supports real time billing with robust reporting engine. The system is Java- based. Its supported vendors are VocalTec, Cisco Systems, MERA and Telles groups," said Nikolov.

Post and Telecommunications Minister Aminul Haque chaired the closing ceremony, while Abdul Awal Mintoo, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) and Enayetullah Khan, editor, Holiday and New Age, were present as special guests.

Akhtaruzzaman Monju, president, Ispab, Ershad Shafi Chowdhury, secretary general, Ispab, Azhar H Chowdhury, systems and software director, Grameen Cybernet, Mustafa Jabbar, CEO, Ananda Computers, and Sarwar Alam, chairman, Basis were among the guests present.

"Our ministry is committed to providing every support to the ICT sector. We have broken all kinds of telecommunications barriers and now it is up to you to make use of this opportunity," the minister said.

"The four-day fair drew over 30,000 people to the stalls," said the Ispab president. The fair was co-sponsored by GrameenPhone, Samsung's local distributor Electra Telecom, REACH, RC Cola and SpeedCast.