The much-awaited ‘One Country One Rate’ tariff is being introduced from Sunday to provide affordable internet access to marginalized people by preventing geographical disparities.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar will inaugurate the tariff at 3 pm in the main meeting room of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.
Talking to Digibangla, the minister said broadband internet would be priced at three slabs across the country on the basis of discussions with stakeholders.
However, it is known that except for a few big ISPs, the rest are not ready. Internet service providers say it is difficult to implement a single rate across the country unless the transmission fee (flat and floor price) is reduced by 50 percent at the NTTN level. ISPAB Secretary-General Imdadul Haque said that this would be possible only if the government gives one country, one rate at the transmission level. But they are still not sure about the price, he said.
However, BTRC has been working for a long time to implement the one country one rate slogan of broadband internet to protect the interests of the customers. On June 2, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, ICT Adviser to the Prime Minister, held a meeting with the Minister and top officials of the Department of Posts and Telecommunications.
Secretary of Posts and Telecommunications Md. Afzal Hossain will be present at the One Country One Rate program to be held under the chairmanship of BTRC Chairman Shyam Sundar Sikder on the next working day after the end of the meeting. One country one rate will be announced on that occasion.
Meanwhile, an investigation by Digibangla has revealed that initially, three companies may start this practice. However, it will be limited to the divisional level.
In such a situation, if a single rate is implemented across the country, a marginal customer will save a maximum of Taka 200 per Mbps on the Internet. The minimum speed per tariff will be 5 Mbps. At the marginal level at the cost of 500-600 Taka. And the maximum price of 20 Mbps speed can be tied to one thousand 200 taka.
