I am not sure the things have improved since then.

One biggest issue Bangladesh faces today is corruption. Each and every activity in Bangladesh is connected to corruption in one way or the other. The locals have no qualms in admitting it. Most of the cases it is just the norm than the exception. I think the telecom field is not very different.

Wonder what Mr.Abu Saeed Khan has to say about that.

A rare opportunity has emerged to connect Bangladesh with a much-needed second low-cost submarine cable as seven leading Asean telecoms operators officially joined hands to deploy a transpacific undersea link to connect with the United States of America.
Besides acquiring extra bandwidth and directly accessing the USA, sources said, joining this predominantly multi-government submarine cable consortium will become an invaluable backup to the country’s newly commissioned only submarine cable link, SEA-ME-WE4.
If Bangladesh joins the newly formed consortium, the country’s telecoms and ICT industries will enjoy seamless overseas connection even if one of the two cables gets accidentally snapped underneath the sea.
Although Bangladesh is not an initial party to the new Asean-led submarine cable venture, diplomatic moves coupled with a sound business plan will give the country a fair chance to be in the team.
The opportunity became visible on Friday when Telekom Malaysia (TM) led the official formation of an initial seven-country consortium to build the Asia-America Gateway (AAG), an international undersea cable system, linking Southeast Asia with the US.
Responding to TM’s invitation, key officials of AiTi (Brunei), CAT Telekom (Thailand), PLDT (Philippines), REACH (Hong Kong), StarHub (Singapore) and VNPT (Vietnam) gathered in Hong Kong and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to jointly develop a 20,000 kilometres long AAG submarine cable system. It will route between Malaysia and the US via Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii with branches going to Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Vietnam.
“We see growth for broadband in these countries, there’s a big potential,” says Telekom Malaysia’s wholesale division’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Baharum Salleh. “While the price of bandwidth will continue to go down for sure, the usage will go up with VOIP and other developments catching on… now even tier two carriers are requiring VOIP and data.”

read full article: http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/06/06/d6060601033.htm

A rare opportunity has emerged to connect Bangladesh with a much-needed second low-cost submarine cable as seven leading Asean telecoms operators officially joined hands to deploy a transpacific undersea link to connect with the United States of America.

Besides acquiring extra bandwidth and directly accessing the USA, sources said, joining this predominantly multi-government submarine cable consortium will become an invaluable backup to the country’s newly commissioned only submarine cable link, SEA-ME-WE4.

If Bangladesh joins the newly formed consortium, the country’s telecoms and ICT industries will enjoy seamless overseas connection even if one of the two cables gets accidentally snapped underneath the sea.

Although Bangladesh is not an initial party to the new Asean-led submarine cable venture, diplomatic moves coupled with a sound business plan will give the country a fair chance to be in the team.

read full article at: http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/06/06/d6060601033.htm

In Bangladesh, this situation can be seen in every area, not just in Telecom. Take the roads, for example. The road network has not developed, but that has not prevented the increase in the number of vehicles. Result? Traffic jams one can think only in ones worst nightmares.

I do not say the situation is very different in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, but these three countries at least have done something and it is only a challenge of moving forward. Bangladesh, on the other hand is stuck in a bottleneck. It needs to push the reforms process as soon as possible. If not the situation will be worse.

ershadu hoque
4th year , cse, dhaka university.

The government has artificially reduced the bandwidth price ahead of the general election in January 2007. The government has, however, done absolutely nothing to build an average quality of last mile, which delivers the submarine cable’s bounty at the customers’ doorsteps.

SEA-ME-WE4 is the country’s very first submarine cable. Bangladesh naturally has to wait for the wet segment’s redundancy until another cable lands at her coast. But BTTB (the government) has wasted four invaluable years (Since May 2002) to make a simple SDH ring in its nationwide transmission backbone!

Therefore, forget about the cable-cut in the wet segment of SEA-ME-WE4, BTTB’s own nationwide point-to-point transmission link remains highly vulnerable to prolonged (couple of days or even a week) disruption.

BTTB’s such apathy is attributed to being a government department rather than a service provider. That’s why it is imperative to salvage the country’s only cable landing station from BTTB’s inept ownership.

It is lot more than a legal issue. This is a matter of achieving economic sustainability through competition.

According to the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB), the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) has already received BDT65 million (USD1 million) from eleven Dhaka-based ISPs for cable bandwidth on the newly inaugurated SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine link. The new system has brought charges down: previously ISPs had to pay around USD3,000 per month to rent 1Mbps while the charge is now around USD1,000.

From Telegeography