Mobile, telephone and broadband internet connections in the coastal areas have been disrupted by Cyclone Remal. However, the situation started improving from Tuesday afternoon. According to the information received from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission-BTRC, the mobile network condition has normalized in Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Nilphamari and Chapainawabganj by noon out of the 10 affected districts till 10 pm on Monday. Of the 56 percent of BTS affected during the same period, 11 percent improved.
On the other hand, Bangladesh Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh-ISPAB informed that 50 percent of their damaged connections have been restored.
Similarly, 19 sites of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL), 296 sites of Summit Communication Limited, 24 sites of Fiber@Home have been shut down due to lack of electricity during the cyclone. However, the PSTNs of Chittagong’s telecommunication zone have been kept operational on generator and battery backup.
This is how tele-network services are improving over time, said BTRC’s Engineering and Operations Department. According to the information available from this department on Tuesday (May 28) at 10 am, 32 thousand 906 towers out of total 58 thousand 298 towers of mobile operators across the country were out of order, i.e., 56 percent were inactive. But at 12 noon the situation improved and the percentage dropped to 45 percent. That means there has been an improvement of 11 percent in two hours. According to statistics, 26 thousand 251 towers out of total 58 thousand 298 towers of mobile operators across the country were out of order till 12 noon.
On the other hand, according to information provided by ISP operators to BTRC, about three lakh i-speakers in affected coastal areas are deprived of fixed internet. The network of more than 100 ISP operators in the affected districts has been damaged due to uprooted trees in coastal areas, power outages and extensive damage to internet cables due to the cyclone. Out of 320 PoP’s of ISP operators in the affected districts, 250 are non-functional.
Regarding this, ISPAB President Imdadul Haque said that the work to restore the damaged Last mile connectivity has started from Tuesday morning. By noon, 50 percent of connectivity had been restored. Now waiting for electricity. Even so, the alternative system managed to restore 50 percent of the connections. For this, the lines have been pulled with bamboo because the portable generators have been broken somewhere, and the electricity pillars have been broken.
In such a situation, the President of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers Association, Mohiuddin Ahmed, is complaining that the mobile operators have insufficient towers, substandard microwaves, substandard batteries, no overhead fiber and generators, and because the country’s fiber optical is still 65 percent overhead, the network is disconnected when there is a storm. He also urged the regulatory body to monitor the quality and battery type of mobile microwaves.
In a statement sent to the media, the president of the organization raised questions about the policies that BTRC had created in 2018 by licensing four private tower companies. It is said that the mobile operator will not be able to build new towers. That is, they have to take services from Towerco company in exchange of money. These tower companies basically buy towers from mobile operators. The microwaves in these towers are not up to standard, and the batteries are also out of standard. What is the reason for the network going down when the power goes out where six hours of power back is supposed to be provided?
The number of active SIM holders in the country is about 192.6 million, while on the contrary, there are about 45 thousand 231 towers where it was supposed to have about one lakh towers. Among them, Robi has 2,296, Grameenphone has 12,526, Banglalink has 4,621, Teletalk has 621 and AB Hitech Consortium has 860; Edotco has 16,683; Summit has 4,388 and Kirtankhola has 621 and BTCL has 500 towers.
