The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4 AI) delegation visiting Bangladesh termed the country as a ‘role model’ for making the Internet more accessible for the rest of the world. They made the remarks during a courtesy call on Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mostafa Jabbar at his office on Tuesday.
According to a statement from the ministry, the delegation noted that the government’s efforts and progress in expanding high-speed broadband internet in Bangladesh over the past four years were unimaginable. They cite the value of broadband internet as a role model for the One Country One Rate program for all people in all regions.
A4 AI Bangladesh Coordinator Shahid Uddin Akbar led the delegation. The other members of the delegation are Eleanor, the agency’s global policy officer, and Anju Mangal, the Asia-Pacific coordinator.
The delegation called for continued expansion of the Internet and its efforts to make it accessible to all people. He hoped that Bangladesh’s progress in the field of internet would be an example to other countries.
Earlier, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications termed ‘Internet as the highway of digital Bangladesh’ and highlighted the program taken by the government to extend network facilities to every region of the country.
The Minister said that in line with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visionary initiative Digital Bangladesh program, high speed broadband network has been extended to almost every union of the country and 4G network has been extended to 98% areas of the country. In the meantime, 5G spectrum has been auctioned and 5G has been launched.
He also cited the example of expanding connectivity in remote and inaccessible areas of the country, saying that now with the help of internet, young men and women can outsource work abroad from Madhupar hills or haors.
He said that in 2008 only 7.5 Gbps internet was used in the country and the number of users was only 8 lakh. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, 1000 Gbps internet was used in the country. At present, it has increased to 3440 Gbps and the number of users has increased to about 13 crore, the minister said.
He said broadband was being exported to Saudi Arabia, India and Bhutan after meeting the growing demand for the network in the country. He said Bangladesh has started work on connecting the third submarine cable. The minister hoped that an additional 13,200 Gbps bandwidth would be added once the third submarine cable connection was completed.
