A JICA study on investment climate has come up with some interesting findings, according to a news report. It reflects what LIRNEasia found through its benchmarking work.
Bangladesh did demonstrate herself as competitive in eight components, including lowest rates among all the countries surveyed with regards to monthly telephone charge and monthly gas charge.
However, it remained less competitive in most areas related to foreign investment, including container transportation, land price of industrial estate, internet connection fee, monthly internet fee, telephone installation fee, mobile phone subscription fee, and corporate income tax among others.
The report, however, highlighted high internet fees among these.
“Particularly, the Monthly Basic Payment for Broadband Internet Service in Bangladesh is continuously holding highest position among all the participating countries in this survey.”
3 Comments
Kirigalpoththa
40 paisa per minute – I don’t think other countries can beat that.
Anyway I can’t see any price reductions in mobile tariff in Bangla market. If so they will kill the industry.
Amar
The APRU is holding steady and don’t think it can go any lower. Meanwhile, BTRC just lowered wholesale bandwidth price by 33% in effect starting from August 2009. And more price cuts are on the way, hopefully Bangladesh can also have the cheapest broadband charges, soon.
Abu Saeed Khan
The mobile market is poised to consolidate in Bangladesh. Charging “per minute” basis will not sustain much longer. The industry will fight with “free minutes” and bundling other value added services. EBITA margin will survive if the OPEX remains under control through innovative measures like outsourcing and network sharing.
Regulatory intervention in wholesale bandwidth price is not a sustainable approach for affordable broadband. The submarine cable landing station should be open. And the national transmission networks are to be functionally separated from access service. The ISPs will co-locate respective servers at BTCL’s international gateway. Let the agencies (both with and without intelligence) monitor the traffic.
The providers should be also allowed to directly deal with competitive international carriers, bypassing the public and private gateway monopolies that have been created by the infamous ILDTS Policy. That will start making broadband cheaper in Bangladesh. The second submarine cable with equally open second landing station will pave the way for cheapest broadband in Bangladesh.
“Day of Information Disorder”: Evidence-Based Solutions for a Resilient Digital Age
On July 3, 2025, in Colombo, LIRNEasia organized the “Day of Information Disorder” to disseminate research findings from two major studies: a nationally representative survey and an experimental study measuring the effectiveness of misinformation countering measures. The event brought together researchers, journalists, media professionals, tech innovators, and policy experts to address one of today’s most urgent challenges: information disorder.
Climate Misinformation: Why Current Interventions May Be Failing
A recent experimental study conducted by LIRNEasia in Sri Lanka explored people’s ability to accurately assess the truthfulness of information — and found that this ability varies significantly depending on the topic. The study focused on three types of information: climate change, economic, and ethno-religious issues.
Launch of the Information Disorder Research in Sri Lanka and a Forum on Building Digital Resilience
On the 1st of July 2025, LIRNEasia in collaboration with the University of Jaffna held an event titled Launch of the information disorder research in Sri Lanka and a forum on building digital resilience. The event centered around the launch of results from a LIRNEasia study assessing the ability of Tamil news readers in Sri Lanka to classify information as true/false, and measuring the effectiveness of popular countermeasures to misinformation, such as fact-checking and media literacy programs.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
12, Balcombe Place, Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2025 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific