ISPAB has withdrawn the decision of ‘internet blackout’ for an indefinite period at Bashundhara Residential Area of Dhaka. After issuing the ultimatum on Sunday night, a bilateral meeting was held led by Saiful Hasan, head of operation of Bashundhara Group’s subsidiary Bumblebee, at the ISPAB Secretariat in Banani on Monday morning. A consensus was reached between the parties regarding the withdrawal of subscription demand and resumption of the lines which were cut off, informed the ISPAB President Md. Emdadul Hoque.
According to sources, the ISPAB General Secretary Nazmul Karim Bhuiyan, Joint General Secretary Md. Abdul Qayyum Rashed along with top officials and members of the companies providing Internet services to Bashundhara residents were present in the meeting. Saiful Hasan, Head of Operations of Bumblebee, called from the meeting and instructed the ISP service providers to relax the Gate-pass to reopen the connections. He also said that Bashundhara Group will take initiatives to solve all the problems by listening to all the complaints of the victims present.
Regarding the meeting, the ISPAB President Md. Emdadul Hoque said, we have raised three demands against taking the decision to restart the service in the meeting. These are – opening up the access of all internet service providers in Bashundhara Residential Areas controlling and renting our POPs there entirely through ISPAB and fully withdrawing the subscription to implement the ‘one country, one rate’ policy announced by the government. He also said that another meeting will be held soon to finalize the matter.
On launching the service, ISPAB General Secretary Nazmul Karim Bhuiyan said, ISPAB members are determined to implement the world-acclaimed ‘One Country, One Rate’ policy announced by the Prime Minister’s Advisor Sajib Wazed Joy by providing appropriate VAT-tax to the government. So they immediately started the work of re-establishing the connections to Bashundhara Residential Area. It will take some time to fix the 5000 lines which were cut till yesterday.