Constraints and Technology Updates in Bangladesh Sumon Ahmed Sabir BDCOM Online Limited, Bangladesh

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Constraints and Technology Updates in
BangladeshSumon Ahmed SabirBDCOM Online
Limited, Bangladeshsumon_at_bdcom.comA Business
Framework with Existing InfrastructuresMohammad
Abdul AwalCitizen of BangladeshStudent of Asian
Institute of Technology, Thailandawal4u_at_yahoo.com
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Bangladesh

• Area 144,000 km2 - Flat terrain
• Population 146.7 million (UN, 2003)
• Infrastructure optical fiber, cellular tower,
  microwave station
• Average annual income US 360 (World Bank, 2001)
• Population below poverty line 36
• Unemployment rate 35 (2001 est.)
• Literacy Rate Total 41 (2001)
• Internet domain .bd

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Telecom Infrastructure in Bangladesh

• Fixed line Telephone 0.92 Million (by BTTB)
• Mobile Telephone 3.00 Million
• Teledensity 2.90 (PSTN Mobile)
• Digitized District 64 (ALL)
• Digitized Sub district 165 (out of 465, 100 by
  the end of 2005)
• Number of ISPs 159 (64 are actively providing
  services)
• Internet Users 2 Million
• VSAT Provider User 31 and 70
• 1800 KM fiber optic cable under Bangladesh
  Railway is being utilized the private mobile
  telephone operator
• Submarine cable yet to be connected in 2005

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Fiber Optic Network under Bangladesh Railway
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Internet User Scenario
130 Million Population
Bangladesh
2 Million Internet User
12 Million Population
Dhaka (Capital City)
1.6 Million Internet User
WHY?
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Constraints

• Poor decision Making by the Government
• Lack of proper utilization of existing
  infrastructure
• License fees are two high making Internet more
  expensive
• No legal frame work against illegal operators
  making it more difficult for the genuine ISPs
• Government Regulatory bodies does not have any
  vision about need and future dimension of modern
  technology
• Poor Economy
• Need to think about basic needs
• Cant afford Internet though they fill of its
  need

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Constrains

• Illiteracy
• Most people do not have basic education
• No value of Internet to them
• Number of telephone line is not enough and
  limited to major cities only. Even a willing
  person may not access even a dialup Internet
  service.
• BTTB do not cooperate with private ISPs to use
  there infrastructure for xDSL connectivity.
• So for broadband service, ISPs depends on there
  own wireless or cable backbones which most of the
  cases limited to a very small areas.
• Low population density areas are always ignored
  for not having business viabilities. So they do
  not have broadband Internet access.
• But Bangladesh are moving forward

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Some Private Initiatives

• 50 KM of optical fiber backbone throughout Dhaka
  city
• WiMAX technology is deployed in Dhaka
• OFDM based
• Non line of sight
• NEXTNET wireless
• Most of the ISPs have there own broadband
  infrastructure
• Using Radio and DSL
• Limited to certain areas

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Bangladesh Internet Exchange (BDIX)

• BDIX is already operational
• 11 Major ISPs already connected
• Another 5 ISPs and University of DHAKA are
  joining next month
• Some other ISPs are in the pipeline
• So we are not sending local traffic to USA any
  more
• But still we dont see significant local traffic
• So one of our initiative should be to increase
  more and more local content.

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Bangladesh Internet Exchange (BDIX)
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VoIP in Bangladesh

• Government legalized VoIP almost 1 year
• But didnt issue a single license
• 70 of international calls are coming using VoIP
  
• Through unlicensed operators
• Licensed ISPs are deprived from a legitimate
  business

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Telecom Infrastructure in BTTB

• Fixed line telephone 0.92 Million
• Fixed line pending demand 0.18 Million
• Geographical Coverage 40
• Optical Fiber Backbone 1365 KM
• SDH Microwave links 1161 KM, 30 hops
• PDH links 830 KM, 16 hops
• 34M Microwave link 8146 KM
• Satellite earth station 4
• Dial-up Internet service 64 districts, 165 Sub
  districts
• DDN and DSL Technology among 41 districts
• Backbone Bandwidth 24 Mbps (16 Down 8 Up)
• Internet leased line service 64 Kbps 2 Mbps

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Fiber Optic Network under BTTB
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Microwave, SDH, PDH Network under BTTB
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Business Framework for BTTB

• Why business issues?
• Most past works focused mainly technical issues
  and network designing
• Government issues PSTN license to private sector,
  breaks BTTBs monopoly
• Now, its time to think for money generating
  aspects
• Hence, supports overall economic or business
  activities in Bangladesh
• How?

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E-Banking E-Commerce

• 560 Billion Dollars product will be sold online
  by 2006 in the whole world
• We have to claim our share
• According to Bill Gates
• Internet costs only 0.93 of the conventional
  banking

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E-Banking E-Commerce for Customers

• Check their balances
• Review their transactions
• Print a mini statement of account or place an
  order for full postal statement
• Order check book and paying-in book
• Make online application for credit and debit
  cards
• Pay regular bills
• Transfer money to and from different accounts,
  both internally and externally
• Lost of money and life threats from the looters
  can be assured.
• Set up repetitive scheduled payments such as
  installment.
• Provides flexibility to customers, whereby they
  are able to keep track of their finances in their
  own time not bound by the branch opening and
  closing time.

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E-Banking E-Commerce for Providers

• Reduce number of branches or showrooms.
• Reduce the number of employees.
• Banks can service more customers.
• Enjoys flexibility in product ordering.
• Sellers are also buyer. So they also enjoy the
  benefits of online buyers.
• Accelerated inter and intra-bank transactions at
  home and abroad.
• Faster auditing facilities and automated report
  generation system help in accountability.
• Future pay account system allows merchants to
  offer installment and repetitive scheduled
  payment facilities.

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Banking Status in Bangladesh

• State owned bank (NCB) 4 (with 3496 branches)
• Specialized bank (DFI) 5 (with 1311 branches)
• Private bank 30 (with 1398 branches)
• Foreign commercial bank 10 (with 31 branches)
• Total Bank 49 with 6,233 branches
• Number of branches are increasing each year
• Money supply increases more than 15 Each year
• Increase of complexity in the Inter and Intra
  bank money transfer manually
• All foreign banks and 7 private bank consortium
  are providing ATM service in major cities
• Already started online banking and telebanking
• Negligible percentage of total banking customer
• No state owned banks are proving these services
• Inter or Intra banking transactions with NCB
  remain manual

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Obstacles to e-Banking and e-Commerce

• All customers are not familiar with e-Banking and
  e-Commerce
• Need a culturing progress besides traditional
  services
• Slow speed of Internet
• VSAT is the only way to communicate outside
  country
• Difficult user interface
• Not enough websites or software in native
  language
• Electronic Transaction like use of Credit Card in
  E-Business is still prohibited
• Need deploy the cyber law, not only the policy
• To prevent cyber fraud and intruders

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Roles of Network Service Providers (BTTB)
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Telemedicine in Bangladesh

• Patient and doctor ratio is 46661
• 45 Million spend outside country for treatment
  purposes
• Some companies are providing telemedicine,
  requires high bandwidth with low cost
• BTTB can lease existing telecom network with low
  cost and earn 40 revenue of telemedicine
  communication.

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Roles of Software Developers and Banks

• Bangladesh Association of Software and
  Information Services analyzed
• Banking sector can play a vital role help to
• Could develop local software market of USD170
  Million
• If the banking sectors was computerized
• 21 Public, 51 Private universities, 31 colleges
• Producing 5000 Computer Science or IT graduates
  per year
• Most of them are less paid or do not get relevant
  jobs
• Can support building and maintaining banking and
  other softwares
• Running on BTTBs backbone network
• Help to grow national Economy

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Conclusion

• Technology is available
• Infrastructure is there (more or less)
• Concerned people shows interest
• Need flexibility for using available
  infrastructure
• Need proper propagation of information
• Need cooperation of government and private sector

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Thank You All
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Thank You All