Import of IoT devices needs prior approval

The telecom regulator has made it mandatory for businesses to get enlisted and take prior approval to import Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

A fee of Tk 25,000 will be charged for enlistment, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said in a directive.

However, importers will be exempted from such fee and approval if they bring in devices with only 2-watt power output capacity. They, however, will have to pay Tk 5,000 as the application fee and Tk 500 as the processing fee.

Internet of Things is the concept of connecting any device with an on and off switch to the internet (and/or to each other).

IoT devices include everything starting from cellphones, coffee makers, water, and waste management tools, lamps, agriculture, wearable devices, car parking and lighting to airplane engines.

Many businesses are interested to import IoT devices in bulk, which has prompted the BTRC to introduce such rules, an official said.

M Helal Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the management information systems department at Dhaka University, praised the regulator's effort. “IoT is an inevitable technology in digital life. We need to make it open as early as possible,” said Ahmed, who is an expert on the technology.

 He said $70,000 a day could be saved if the temperature for air-conditioners can be maintained at more than 25 degree Celsius through IoT devices.

There will be 30 billion IoT devices in the world by 2020, according to the BTRC.

Bangladesh's companies are not also lagging behind. DataSoft Systems Bangladesh Ltd, a local company, has opened an IoT laboratory in Dhaka in November 2016.

DataSoft is now establishing 10,000 smart homes in Tokyo with the help of IoT solutions.

It has also signed an agreement with the Ministry of Transport and Communication Channels of the Democratic Republic of Congo to advise and install an IoT-based toll management solution at the Central African country's Matadi Bridge.