State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Junaid Ahmed Palak has said that four and a half thousand unions of the country will be brought under broadband internet by December 2021.
He was speaking at the inaugural function of “Broadband Connectivity Establishment Project in Telecommunication Disadvantaged Areas” at the union level on May 2.
The state minister said 1,200 unions have been connected to the internet through BTCL in the country and 2,800 unions through fiber optical under the Info Gov. 3 project of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC).
In addition, work is underway to bring 617 Union Fiber Optical High-Speed Internet Broadband Connectivity. It is expected that the main infrastructural development work will be completed by 2021.
Palak said, ‘There will be only 100 unions left. Hon’ble Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy Bhai has instructed that there will be about one hundred and fifty unions left which will be connected through Bangabandhu 1 satellite to the hills and islands where we cannot carry fiber optical cable.
The state minister also said that a ‘School of Future’ would be set up in 300 constituencies in the next few months to build skilled human resources in the country.
“There will be one ‘School of Future’ model school in each parliamentary seat,” he said. Where student attendance, teacher attendance, class attendance, their course curriculum will all be recorded online. In addition, in their ‘School of the Future lab, they will be able to get hands-on learning about front-line technologies.
Jagdish Chandra Sarkar, Project Director, Connecting Bangladesh, said that work is underway to set up broadband connectivity in 21 unions of different Upazilas of the country including Dahagram in Lalmonirhat, Ramna in Kurigram, Kamdia in Gaibandha and Gandhail Union in Sirajganj.
Shyam Sundar Sikder, chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), said the launch of digital centers in union parishads would connect other nearby educational institutions and make it easier for people to access various e-services of the government.
Senior Secretary of Information and Communication Technology Department NM Ziaul Alam presided over the function. Motahar Hossain, Rezwan Ahmed Tawfiq of Kishoreganj-4 constituency, Pankaj Nath of Barisal-4 constituency, Mahfuzur Rahman of Chittagong-3 constituency, Tanvir Shakil Joy of Sirajganj-1 constituency, Parthapratim Deb, executive director of Bangladesh Computer Council delivered their speeches on the occasion.
Later, the state minister inaugurated the work of setting up broadband connectivity at the union level.
