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Govt set to slash further 30-37pc off internet tariffs

Md Hasan
The government looks set to slash a further 30-37 percent off internet tariffs in an effort to encourage growth in the high tech industries and enable Bangladesh to compete for global outsourcing contracts with its South Asian neighbours.
The cut has been proposed by Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), the country's sole internet bandwidth provider, and is now being considered by the finance ministry.
BTTB cut internet tariffs by 20 to 40 percent in February, however it was considered inadequate by many people active in the ICT sector who pointed out that internet access was still more expensive than in neighbouring countries.
They claim that high internet charges are holding back the rapid growth of software developers and IT outsourcing companies, the kind of companies that have been so important to economic
growth in countries such as India.
Under the new proposal the cost of bandwidth will fall by a third, and according to BTTB, give Bangladesh the cheapest internet costs in the region.
"BTTB submitted its proposal to the Ministry of Finance last week. We are examining it and perhaps a decision will come within a month," said a high official of Ministry of Finance.
Habibullah N Karim, presi-dent of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Service (Basis) said, "I don't know what the proposal is but we want a mate-rialization of the commitment made by BTTB chairman last month when he said that Bangladesh's internet bandwidth tariff will be the lowest in South Asia."
“This will help not only the software industry, but the whole ICT sector including the upcoming call centers,” he said.
Mohammad Salam, president of Internet Service Provider Association
Bangladesh (ISPB) said, "We may also reduce our monthly charges proportionately."
However he said, "It's possible to reduce internet price more if government come forward in building a common under ground cable line for the internet service providers."
ISPs have to spend Tk30,000 per connection forestablishing connection route to the users.
Under the proposed tariff plan, monthly leased internet access between 3 to 18 Mbps will be reduced 32 percent from existing Tk40,000 a month to Tk27,00.
In die second range from 20 to 45 Mbps charges will reduce by 31 percent from Tk38,000 to Tk26,000, a month. From 50 to 90Mbps, the third range for ISPs, internet charge will reduce by 33 percent from existing Tk36,000 to Tk24,000 per month. The proposed plan said charge for 100 Mbps and above will reduce by 31 percent from Tk32,000 toTk22,000.
According to BTTB's new tariff plan, annual rentals for leased internet access service for 64kbps (kilobits per sec-ond) to 2mbps (megabits per second) bandwidth range between Tk 90,000 and Tk 91akh from the earlier charges of Tk 96,000 and Tk 14.4 lakh respectively. In these ranges, BTTB is proposing to cut up to
37 percent rental charges.
BTTB's proposed charge for individual dial up internet subscriber is Tk 700 a month for unlimited usage, reduced fromTk 1,000.
hasan@thedailystar.net