Fast internet and an increasing use of smartphones are not enough to make a digital country, but local content is the key, analysts said yesterday.

Speakers also underscored the need for lowering internet prices, and establishing an effective ecosystem to develop an ICT-enabled country. 

They spoke at a discussion on digital content and connectivity held on the sidelines of a three-day tab and smartphone expo that ended at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.

“Local digital content is also essential to the ecosystem, but we lack that,” said Shameem Ahsan, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services.

Ahsan also said the government should not block Facebook, Skype or any other social media network, as the last year's ban, from November 18 to Dec 10, caused a major setback to the digitisation process. 

The telecom industry can connect another five crore people to the internet in the next three to four years, but for that there must be enough locally generated content, said Mohammad Muntasir Hossain, head of digital service at Grameenphone.

“If we can develop local content that can significantly improve peoples' way of life, I am sure it will also increase internet usage,” said Hossain.

BASIS is providing support to local content developers to help them grow, according to Ahsan.

Some international venture capitalists and the central bank have also taken similar steps to help build capacity, and the future will be bright, he said. Grameenphone has cut internet prices by 78 percent in just two years, said Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate affairs officer of GP.

“Now we are providing internet at subsidised prices, keeping in mind the future prospects.”

Currently, there are 5.39 crore active internet connections in Bangladesh, with about 95 percent connected by mobile. About 20 percent of mobile internet users are using smartphones, and the figures are increasing by the day.  The jobs report also demonstrated that expectations of small hikes in the central bank's federal funds rate had not caused employers to hold off recruiting new workers when they need them.

“Our internet penetration increased in the last couple of years, but we need to increase local content now,” said Hossain.

New and innovative services will hit the market if the cost of internet falls, said Sonia Bashir Kabir, country manager of Microsoft Bangladesh.

High spectrum pricing is a barrier to cutting internet prices, which can be reduced if the government reduces spectrum price, GP's Hossain said

Smartphone imports are significantly increasing but the industry needs to establish an effective ecosystem where people can access whatever content they want, said Rezwanul Haque, general secretary of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association.

The discussion was moderated by Munir Hasan, general secretary of Bangladesh Open Source Network.