Internet fees for home users drop 25pc

The average internet access charge for home users will come down by 25 percent to Tk 750 a month, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) said yesterday.
The decision, effective from next month, came following a meeting between the internet service providers and Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday in Dhaka.
The internet service providers took the decision on the heels of criticisms that they did not reduce fees for home users despite the fact that the government cut internet bandwidth charges by up to 40 percent in February.
"We have decided to cut monthly internet charges for home users by 25 percent," said Mohammed Salam, president of ISPAB.
Salam said, "We are happy to do it. It's high time we linked Bangladesh with the global community through the internet."
The president of the ISPAB said they will send letters to all ISPs by Sunday to implement the new tariff.
ICT industry insiders hope the rate cut will help increase the country's internet penetration rate. At present, Bangladesh is one of the lowest internet users with the penetration rate of only 0.3 percent.
According to the ISPAB, the number of internet users in Bangladesh is around 6 million. Out of 200 ISP licensee, only 70 ISPs are in operations offering internet services to home and corporate users.
According to BTTB's new tariff plan of charges to ISPs effective from February 1, annual rentals for leased internet access service for 64kbps (kilobits per second) to 2mbps (megabits per second) bandwidth range between Tk 96,000 and Tk 1.44 lakh from the earlier charges of Tk 1.65 lakh and Tk 1.92 lakh respectively.
Installation charge for leased internet access for above 2mbps bandwidth has been fixed at minimum Tk 20,000, while monthly rental for the same service is minimum Tk 36,000 and maximum Tk 40,000 for different slabs from Tk 55,000 and Tk 75,000 earlier.