Bangladesh Doubles Internet Speed

"From now on, internet subscribers will get 10 Mbps speed instead of the previous 5 Mbps under the same 500 taka (around 4.17 U.S. dollars) entry-level (monthly) package," Emdadul Haque, president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh, said.

He made the announcement at a roundtable discussion organized by Telecom and Technology Reporters' Network at the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) headquarters in Dhaka.

At the event, Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, special assistant to the Bangladeshi interim government's chief adviser Muhammad Yunus with executive authority over the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology, said Bangladesh aims to be among the top 30 countries in global digital indices within two years.

Taiyeb, however, stressed the need for continuous monitoring of internet service quality.

"Some claim Bangladesh offers the cheapest internet in the region, but in terms of quality, it's among the worst," he said.

The total number of Bangladesh's internet subscribers topped 130 million at the end of February this year, according to recent data from the country's telecom regulator.

The BTRC data showed that of the internet subscribers, some 116.03 million are mobile internet users and 14.04 million broadband internet users.

Bangladesh currently has four mobile companies in operation, three of them being foreign-backed cellphone operators.

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