Category Archives: Bangladesh
License renewal: What not to do (case of Bangladesh)
The above is a paraphrase of a eye-catching title of a paper being read at TPRC 2012, on September 22, 2012, by LIRNEasia Research Fellow Faheem Hussain. Congratulations to Faheem on getting his paper accepted at the oldest ICT policy research conference.
Bangladesh: Basic argument against proposed VAS licensing rules appears to have been accepted
In May LIRNEasia responded to a consultation on proposals for VAS licensing in Bangladesh. Our response received wide coverage too. It appears that we (among others) may have influenced the government’s response, as reported in the Daily Star. The telecom ministry will form a five-member panel to examine the issues related to mobile phone value-added [...]
Bangladesh gets backup for undersea cable and also enters transit business
Bangladesh is a big country and a coastal country. Yet it was very late in getting connected to a cable. SEA-ME-WE 4 became operational only in 2006. Then it was the largest country without redundancy,having to rely on SEA-ME-WE 4 even to communicate with India, the country that surrounds it. Now all that is over. [...]
Is Bangladesh the first in the region to announce plans for 700MHz Band?
If other countries have announced plans, please tell us. By region we mean South Asia, but even SE is fine. Of course, there’s the gap between cup and lip. Announcing is one thing. Actually getting the job done is another. Hope Bangladesh will be first in assigning spectrum too. The telecom regulator is reviewing the [...]
What are the conditions of Bangladesh 2G license renewals?
Bangladesh’s largest company was operating without a license from last November. Looks like that is about to end. The question that remains is what are these conditions? On Sept 11 last year, the watchdog published final guidelines on renewing the licences, two months before 2G licences of the four operators expired. BTRC was supposed to [...]
Bangladesh Finance Minister withdraws mobile tax
BDnews24.com reports that The minimum tax of Tk 3,000 was endorsed by the MPs, barring those from the boycotting opposition, while the Minister withdrew his proposal to impose tax at source on mobile phone bill.
Bangladesh: Tax on mobiles pulled back?
Less than a month ago, we expressed an opinion on the Bangladesh Finance Minister’s proposal to pile on more taxes on mobile use. Obviously, we could not have been the only people who objected, but looks like it has worked. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given to pressure from exporters as she asked Finance Minister [...]
Bangladesh Internet user numbers questioned
But this time they are not the numbers given by the ITU. They are the exaggerated claims of the BTRC. The Daily Star questions: If BTRC’s figures were true, Bangladesh would be among the top 20 countries in the world in terms of number of internet users. Alas, it is nowhere in sight. Munir Hasan, [...]
Regional lessons brought to bear on Bangladesh plan to impose more taxes on mobile
The Government of Bangladesh announced its intention to impose more taxes on mobile bills last week. My op-ed in the Daily Star drew on economic principles and regional experience. There is no debate about the government requiring money. A dynamic sector such as telecom must make its fair contribution. Collection leakages in telecom are much [...]
LIRNEasia findings on agricultural supply chains in Bangladesh Daily Star
An oped by Khairul Islam and Nilusha Kapugama on how mobiles can help match supply and demand for cold storage space for Bangladesh potato harvest has been published in Daily Star. The most widely accessible form of ICT in Bangladesh is mobile phone. An information management system can ensure that information on the availability of [...]
Rapid Response to VAS guidelines proposed by Bangladesh
Response to the Draft VAS Guideline (BTRC/LL/VAS(391)/2012, dated 31-01-2012) LIRNEasia is a regional think tank that has, among other things, conducted research on VAS in Bangladesh. The comments below are based on (a) examination of the policy, regulatory and business issues pertaining to mobile VAS in the context of LIRNEasia’s 2008-2010 research program on mobile [...]
Bangladesh: More-than-voice use of mobiles up; phone sharing down
Ericsson has released results of a representative sample survey (3,000 sample) of teleuse in Bangladesh. This is a rare quantitative study for the region. We hope to make a few more posts on it, hopefully after getting a hold of the full report. The Daily Star provides a summary worth reading. The trend towards internet [...]
Bangladesh spectrum: Rearrangement if not yet refarming; cooperation not court cases
Finally, some good news from Dhaka. Four mobile operators have cooperatively started to swap frequencies to yield a more rational arrangement. Congratulations to the regulator, the industry body and the operators. After the rearrangement process, the quality of services of the mobile operators will be better than before with reduced call drops and more efficient [...]
Deja vu in Bangladesh: Inadequate capacity in national cable link makes SEA-ME-WE 4 ugrade meaningless
It was in December 2005 that I wrote the following in an op-ed in the Daily Star: The SAT-3 cable did not increase Internet traffic from Africa, including Nigeria. Indeed, the year-on-year growth slowed in the year after the cable (71 percent in 2002 and 53 percent in 2003). In the case of Nigeria, one [...]
Bangladesh media coverage for LIRNEasia comments on VAS licensing move
The Financial Express has carried a story, based on the public-domain comments we submitted to the Ministry of Post and Telecom. Other than calling and sending text messages, the mobile phone operators offer series of services like downloading of music, ringtone, wallpaper and many others. These are generally known as VAS and being offered as [...]