Mahmudul Hasan

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has directed telecom operators to shut down internet service from 11:00am to 8:00pm today in the capital's Nayapaltan where opposition party BNP is holding a grand rally.

The current economic situation has emerged as one of the main challenges for the telecom sector  of Bangladesh as sustained high inflation could hinder the purchase of telecom services, according to a top executive of a multinational mobile phone company.

Bandwidth imports from India have surpassed that from submarine cables due to a surge in internet usage, India’s more attractive pricing and enhanced redundancy, and the saturation of Bangladesh’s existing undersea cables’ capacity.

Bangladesh advanced slightly in the global mobile connectivity index in 2022 but lags behind every South Asian nation except Pakistan.

The number of internet users in Bangladesh witnessed a notable upswing of 10 lakh in August, predominantly attributed to the expansion of the country’s mobile subscriber network.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday imposed a Tk 5 lakh fine on Fiber@Home Ltd for providing internet services to end users despite lacking the required licence.

Mahmudul Hasan.Mobile network operators added about 12 lakh new customers in August as the country’s mobile subscriber base continued to grow for the eighth month in a row.

The telecom regulator has issued a show cause notice to Fiber@Home Ltd and Fiber@Home Global Ltd for running broadband business through illegal and unlicensed internet service providers (ISPs).

One of the post-pandemic period’s top logistics firms, Paperfly is poised to close down having stopped accepting orders since last week, in a grim reminder of the current challenges faced by Bangladesh's e-commerce sector. .“The company has stopped taking new orders since last week. After

Struggling state-run mobile operator Teletalk is evaluating a proposal from Bashundhara Group to become its strategic investor, in a move that can shake up the country’s mobile landscape.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has recently cancelled the licences of four internet protocol telephony service providers (IPTSPs) after they lost their internet service provider (ISP) licence.

The 4 are: IDEA Networks and Communications Ltd, Digital Connectivity Ltd, Pritty International (Pvt.) Limited and Sadiatec Limited

Delivery Hero, which owns Foodpanda and Pandamart in Bangladesh, said it was in negotiations regarding a potential sale of its Foodpanda business in selected markets in Southeast Asia.

A staggering 97 percent of mobile internet users in Bangladesh are concerned about the privacy and security issues while using their phone, found a report by global telecom company Telenor.

Although higher consumer prices have persisted in the first few months of the current fiscal year, inflation in Bangladesh is going to cool in the later part of 2023-24 thanks to one external and two domestic factors, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecast yesterday.

There is no compelling reason to reduce the number of internet packages to 40 or discontinue three-day and seven-day packages and such a move would restrict customer choice, said a top official of a mobile operator. 

The scale of the immediate but devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on Bangladesh’s economy emerged for the first time after the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) published the quarterly data of the GDP to meet IMF’s conditions.

Feature phone production has more than doubled month-on-month in July as consumers turn to more affordable alternatives to smartphones amid sustained high inflation.

The primary role of bKash involves continuous efforts to promote digital literacy and educate individuals about the benefits of digital financial products. And with this, bKash plays a significant role in the digitalisation of Bangladesh. 

At a time when the government is pressing full steam ahead with the ‘Smart Bangladesh’ agenda, the telecom regulator is taking measures that are at odds with it.