DHAKA – Policymakers and telecom experts at a dialogue on Saturday said that the country is still lagging behind in developing core telecom infrastructure that requires for providing quality internet service at affordable cost to maximise benefit from information and communication technology (ICT) potentials.
Addressing the meeting on “Promoting ICT Sector enabling environment through public-private policy dialogue” at a city hotel, they said there are some uncertainties and gaps between the policy and the stakeholders for implementation of the nationwide backbone connectivity.
They observed that the government should make an investment and growth friendly policy framework so that the businessmen could encourage and bound in some cases to rollout their network without business case.
At present the country has almost 18000km fiber optics transmission. Of them two NTTN (Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network) operators–Fiber @Home and Summit Communication Ltd– have close to 10 per cent of the total capacity. These two operators are solely responsible for developing backbone connectivity across the country.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services and The Asia Foundation jointly organised the programme. Professor Dr Jamilur Reza Chowdhury moderated the discussion.
Prof M Rokonnuzzaman gave a presentation on Nationwide Backbone Connectivity while BASIS president Fahim Shroor`s presentation was on Mobile Apps.
Mobile apps are getting importance in the country side by side increasing growth of mobile telecommunication. There is lots of opportunity for the university level students and the young IT professional for developing their career in this sector.
BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose said they want to come out from over regulatory attitude, but he wants to become a guardian of the telecom sector, if the operators are responsible in their work. The BTRC chief put the question – “are the operators sincere about their responsibility?”
He mentioned that the mobile operators do not know their internet package cost, so is the reality?
Bose said the commission will spend a substantial amount of money for development backbone network infrastructure after getting a rule from law ministry.
Telecom secretary Abu bakar Siddique said the government reduced backhaul and bandwidth price to around 50 per cent, but the end users did not get its benefit.
He said NTTN did not play its proper role, giving blame they have no market base. He angrily said will the government entity only play rollout with no business case?
ICT secretary Nazrul Islam Khan said apps should be open so that anyone can use it. He said capacity building of the sector should give priority then regulation. They are trying to develop a government ‘apps store’ like Google play store.
Head of Strategy & Planing of Grameenphone Munir Hasan said internet cost is the main factor for the end users. So telecom infrastructure should develop to make it affordable to the users.
Anir Chowdhury of A2I project mentioned that almost 16000 government offices and 20,500 multimedia class rooms across the country could not be connected with the internet due to lack of backbone network.
Country representative of Asia Foundation Hasan Mazumder saidthat both government and the stakeholders should come in a position that will bring benefit for the country`s telecom sector development. – Staff Reporter
Country still lags behind in core telecom infrastructure
DHAKA – Policymakers and telecom experts at a dialogue on Saturday said that the country is still lagging behind in developing core telecom infrastructure that requires for providing quality internet service at affordable cost to maximise benefit from information and communication technology (ICT) potentials.
Addressing the meeting on “Promoting ICT Sector enabling environment through public-private policy dialogue” at a city hotel, they said there are some uncertainties and gaps between the policy and the stakeholders for implementation of the nationwide backbone connectivity.
They observed that the government should make an investment and growth friendly policy framework so that the businessmen could encourage and bound in some cases to rollout their network without business case.
At present the country has almost 18000km fiber optics transmission. Of them two NTTN (Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network) operators–Fiber @Home and Summit Communication Ltd– have close to 10 per cent of the total capacity. These two operators are solely responsible for developing backbone connectivity across the country.
Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services and The Asia Foundation jointly organised the programme. Professor Dr Jamilur Reza Chowdhury moderated the discussion.
Prof M Rokonnuzzaman gave a presentation on Nationwide Backbone Connectivity while BASIS president Fahim Shroor`s presentation was on Mobile Apps.
Mobile apps are getting importance in the country side by side increasing growth of mobile telecommunication. There is lots of opportunity for the university level students and the young IT professional for developing their career in this sector.
BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose said they want to come out from over regulatory attitude, but he wants to become a guardian of the telecom sector, if the operators are responsible in their work. The BTRC chief put the question – “are the operators sincere about their responsibility?”
He mentioned that the mobile operators do not know their internet package cost, so is the reality?
Bose said the commission will spend a substantial amount of money for development backbone network infrastructure after getting a rule from law ministry.
Telecom secretary Abu bakar Siddique said the government reduced backhaul and bandwidth price to around 50 per cent, but the end users did not get its benefit.
He said NTTN did not play its proper role, giving blame they have no market base. He angrily said will the government entity only play rollout with no business case?
ICT secretary Nazrul Islam Khan said apps should be open so that anyone can use it. He said capacity building of the sector should give priority then regulation. They are trying to develop a government ‘apps store’ like Google play store.
Head of Strategy & Planing of Grameenphone Munir Hasan said internet cost is the main factor for the end users. So telecom infrastructure should develop to make it affordable to the users.
Anir Chowdhury of A2I project mentioned that almost 16000 government offices and 20,500 multimedia class rooms across the country could not be connected with the internet due to lack of backbone network.
Country representative of Asia Foundation Hasan Mazumder saidthat both government and the stakeholders should come in a position that will bring benefit for the country`s telecom sector development. – Staff Reporter
