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COLUMN

Measuring network readiness

HABIBULLAH N KARIM
The World Economic Forum based in Geneva over the past few years has consistently ranked Bangladesh in the bottom quintile of around 130 countries in network readi-ness. Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the watchdog for the telecoms industry, estimates internet penetration rate at around nothing-to-cheer-about 0.5 percent. Despite dismal prognostications, it is nothing short of amazing that three telecom consortia last week agreed to plunk down more than $30 million each to obtain licences to roll out WiMax network services across the country.
WiMax services provide always-on network connections, which are used primarily for internet access but can also be used to provide virtual private networks (VPN), and other network services. WiMax networks are internet protocol (IP)-based and are inherently cheaper to install and operate than legacy telecom networks.
However, the captains of the telecom industry are taking a wait-and-see stance on the prospects of WiMax adoption on a massive scale. Some believe the low usage numbers for other always-on IP-based network services currently in use, such as EDGE or GPRS
provided by the mobile phone operators, indicate that the adoption curve for such services will be relatively flat in the next few years. Others think that with the right kind of marketing and pricing the demand for such services could skyrocket as has been the case for cellphones since ending the monopoly of mobile telephony in the midnineties.
Whoever comes out right will be determined largely by whether mass people find audio and video streaming, online social networking and other network applications appealing and addictive. One obvious constraint in the adoption of WiMax is the necessity of a computer, as the access and usage device, the cost of which is signifi-cantly higher than a cellphone. However, instead of a computer one can use specialty WiMax-ready computing devices similar to personal digital assistants (PDA) or smartphones. T he devices could be priced below Tk 10,000 depending on the volume of the demand.
To the generation X, the internet is what the telephone was to 3 generations before it. The internet is quickly becoming the de facto medium of all non-physical human interactions through
out the world. Even our physical interactions with the world and people around us are being completely redefined by the internet. Five years ago, people would have looked at an e-ticket for airline travel with suspicion and disbelief. Today it hqs become commonplace even here. Back then we would have a hard time putting Cox's Bazar on the global top ten tourist destinations but today it is a mundane reality.
Many people are not however aware that the government has literally put e-commerce and internet-based transactions on a choke-hold ever since credit cards were introduced in the country in the late nineties. Even today no international credit cards issued by local banks can be used to make a purchase online or even on the phone, transactions that are commonplace everywhere else in the world. Another sdch obstacle is the absence of an electronic payment gateway, which is required to facilitate online validation and execution of business transactions. To give legal cover to such transactions the ICT Act was passed in 2006 even though the draft of the bill was ready in 2003 and since then we are still waiting for the government to take action on framing the
rules and building the on-line infrastructure for digital certifications and transaction settlements.
We have lost five years while the rest of the world is moving forward with the internet way of life without being strapped in straight-jackets by their governments. To the credit of local entrepreneurs and internet-hungry young generation and despite these artificial obstacles in the path of the internet-way-of-life, we have seen it flourish here beyond expectation in some fields such as online recruitments and social networking of students.
Internet penetration needs to make a quantum leap from its sub-integer level to double digits within the next two to three years. We are happy to see big investors are getting into action on making that happen through a number of avenues. First there are the traditional internet service providers (ISP) who provide access to the internet through wired connections, point-to-point wireless connections or a combination of both, primarily in major cities. Then there are the landline phone operators who can provide such access through their wired or wireless telecom network which are again limited to major cities and towns
although the state-owned BTCL is supposed provide such service to upazila level as well.
The mobile phone operators extend the reach of the internet to all parts of the country including remote rural areas but their usage tariffs are much higher than that of ISPs or landline phone operators. With WiMax we will have another delivery channel for access to internet which potentially can be pushed out to .ill four corners of the coun-
try like the mobile phone net-’ works.
The new WiMax licensees obviously know something that the Geneva statisticians failed to capture in their network readiness surveys. We can only hope they are right as the future of our younggeneration and that of the nation depends on it.
The author is the president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Servers and can be reached at hnka^m@9nla', com