News Title : BTRC to sit with IIG for settling unstable internet market - See more at: http://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2015/dec/06/btrc-sit-iig-settling-unstable-internet-market#sthash.ZEBt5qQ8.dpuf

News Date : 2015-12-06

-Ishtiaq Husain
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has decided to sit with the International Internet Gateway (IIG) operators for settling the unstable internet market in the country. To provide affordable internet price and also to stop unethical practices in the internet business, BTRC wants to consult with the stakeholders for setting a minimum price of internet bandwidth. An official of the regulatory body said, “The highest policy level meeting between the commission and the IIG operators will be held soon for providing benefits at the end users level.” “Though there was a regulations to cap on the bandwidth prices at bulk level, the regulatory body didn’t take any measures in this regard. To protect the industry, it was mandatory for fixing a maximum and minimum layer prices,” said Moynul Haque Siddiqui, managing director of Fibre@Home. He stated that tariff regulation is a very important part of this business and the industry will survive only if the regulatory body could take proper measures in this connection. “It is a must to set a benchmark of price to stop unethical practices, or else, end users won’t get any benefits ultimately despite reducing of price,” said another official of an IIG operator. The IIG operators have long been urging the commission to intervene the market to set a benchmark price to stop anarchism in the market. According to industry insiders, though the government is reducing wholesale bandwidth price, the end users are yet to get its due benefit, as there is no benchmark of prices. Against this chaotic situation in the market, end users don’t get the benefits as everyone is fixing the internet prices as per their own wishes. Besides, the operators are also not maintaining its quality of services. A general manager level officer of an IIG operator said, “If the regulatory body wants to protect the industry, the long waited meeting could be an important one to solve the on going crisis.” Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd reduced wholesale bandwidth prices that came into effect from September 1. Each megabit per second (Mbps) bandwidth has been fixed at Tk625 while it will cost Tk800 for internet service providers. The company has fixed Tk558 for each Mbps of bandwidth for a bundle of 20 gigabits, down from Tk980 earlier. For internet service providers, however, each Mbps will cost Tk720 and they have to buy a minimum of 5 Gbps. “As BSCCL directly sells its bandwidth to IIG operators, we are not responsible to monitor the prices at end users’ level,” said Monwar Hossain, managing director BSCCL. Though the IIG operators welcomed the government move to slash the bandwidth prices, they are still unhappy, as the regulatory body didn’t set any benchmark of prices. The country’s demand for bandwidth may reach 210 Gbps by 2021. Bangladesh will get another undersea cable of around 1,400 Gbps by 2016. Bangladesh’s submarine cable, whose lifetime will end in next 12 years, has a bandwidth capacity of 200 Gbps, while it sells only 32 Gbps.

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