Bangladesh: Lowest in call charges and highest in broadband

Posted on July 26, 2009 / 3 Comments

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
July 27, 2009, 6:06 pm
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
July 28, 2009, 12:37 pm
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
July 28, 2009, 1:33 pm
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.