Too little of a good thing
Access to internet in Bangladesh has had a checkered past. In the mid-nineties when Pradeshta, the first commercial e-mail service provider, started operation, it was on off-line basis. Mails would be downloaded on an hourly basis from an internet access point in Singapore and clients here would need to dial into the mail service provider's server to download their mails.
When they wanted to establish an on-line connection, the then BTTB vehemently opposed the idea. Eventually BTTB relented under pressure from the IT industry leaders who lobbied with the Post and Telecom Ministry and started allowing direct satellite (VSAT) connections with internet access points in Hong Kong and Singapore.
That's when ISN started operation as the country's first on-line internet service provider. The floodgates to VSAT-based internet connectivity opened up, but the cost was beyond the reach of common people and small businesses, and only foreign companies, large local corporations and international organisations got hooked up.
Then around the year 1998 BTTB once again tried to stifle the fledgling internet industry by invoking an obscure act from 1898, yes that's right, 1898, it is not a typo, namely the telegraph act of 1898 which gave absolute monopoly to BTTB for all types of communication business over wires (and later over wireless medium as well). After a pitched battle between the IT industry and BTTB, the policy matter was mediated by the government in favour of maintaining the status quo. Eventually, of course the VSAT medium was allowed to flourish under the cover of Internet Service Provider (ISP) licences that saw dozens of providers stake out the internet market here.
Still the access rates were beyond most people's means as satellite connectivity is inherently more expensive than sub-sea cable connectivity. Bangladesh got its first submarine optical fiber link in 2006 and internet access rates started to plummet as the government began lowering the bulk purchase rates for internet bandwidths gradually since. Whereas in 1998 internet usage rates hovered around Tk5 per minute, come 2008 and one can surf in cyberspace for a paltry 10 paisa per minute through dial-up connection from BTCL (the successor to BTTB) -- all in a span of 10 years.
At this rate anyone having an interest in internet can easily afford to get connected. So it is a good thing one would say. Well, not until one tries to dial 0101234 to get connected to BTCL's internet access point. It appears that BTCL is seriously handicapped in its capacity to serve its subscribers. If you keep on trying, may be at one fine lucky moment you will get the connection but most of the time the line is busy or worse, even if you get through the access server drops the line.
It is a real pity that with all the pent-up demand for internet access when the rates are affordable the service is scarce. I distinctly remember that in India anyone could browse the internet for much less than 10 rupees an hour back in 2000. Around the same time in Pakistan anyone from anywhere in that country could dial up through PTCL for instant access to the internet for less than 20 rupees an hour.
As the rest of South Asia has been enjoying and benefiting from the use of internet at competitive rates for many years, when our turn came we find that there is too little capacity to whet the internet hungry appetite of the nation.
It is not only internet access where BTCL fails to deliver on its mandate. The same is true of their hugely underutilised digital data network (DDN) crisscrossing the country. The DDN is a great national asset and can be used to extend internet access to all parts of the country, i.e., any location within the service area of all the digital exchanges under the BTCL.
The DDN has been around for at least 8 years if not longer but the nation is yet to receive the full benefit of this technological investment. I suspect there are other untapped resources lurking within the huge infrastructure owned by the state-owned BTCL. As we are swiftly moving towards a free-market telecom regime, we are hoping the nimble private companies will meet any and all demands for connectivity to the global nervous system in not too distant a future.
There is no reason or rhyme however, for ignoring the existing telecom infrastructure of the state-owned BTCL, which could be harnessed to provide internet access to all parts of the country as a public good.
One must not forget that private for-profit companies will mainly serve urban centres with a high concentration on upper income people. For those in the remote areas the only hope is a state-subsidised service provided as a public service obligation. Such service can be easily rolled out by BTCL using its existing infrastructure whereas obtaining such services from private telecom operators and internet service providers under universal service obligation (USO) fund or under corporate social responsibility remains a far cry.
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