On the last day of giving opinions on the draft National Broadband Policy 2024, the Bangladesh Mobile Consumers Association-BMPCA has appealed for extension of time calling for multilateral discussions with several amendments, modifications and inclusions in the policy. Some parts of the opinion have been highlighted in the media. Mohiuddin Ahmed, the president of the organization, made this request.
He said, after the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr, we think that this policy i.e. National Broadband Policy 2024 should be implemented subject to discussion with all stakeholders and media persons.
Also, in the first and second chapters of the draft policy, the organization has given 5 suggestions and revisions to the content and targets of broadband. The suggestions are:
(1) The point to be noted here is that, there is no explanation about the role and function of ISP (Internet Service Provider) providing broadband services at present.
(2) There is no mention of the amount of bandwidth to be used during the target period and how it will be provided.
(3) What will be the role of fiber i.e. (NTTN) to provide bandwidth and the target of undergrounding of 65% overhead fiber to provide uninterrupted fiber service has not been set.
(4) Current ISP service providers have no targets or proposals to address overhead cable clutter.
(5) There is no clear explanation as to how to determine customer demand, provision of adequate customer devices, customer safety, public awareness and price of service to meet targets as well as whether to include one country one rate.
In the opinion, the minimum speed in the definition of broadband should be 50 Mbps (megabits per second) instead of 20 Mbps. According to the organization, the fact that speed and service are not the same, only speed is mentioned here, so it is normal not to get the desired service. Our recommendation would be a minimum speed of 35 Mbps for download, 30 Mbps for upload and 20 Mbps for latency. As you know, other countries, including America, the most powerful country in the world, are now going to set the broadband speed in Gbps, where we cannot increase the speed in MBPS.
The short-term target period of the policy needs to be increased, it is said, if we review the Telecom Policy 1998, it will be seen that so far, we have been able to meet the target of 7.57 percent. But according to the policy, the target was to be met at 70 percent at present. Similarly, mid-term and long-term goals can be modified and expanded.