Country Presentation Bangladesh

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Country Presentation Bangladesh

• Access to Internet Bangladesh Perspective
• Presented by
• Akber Hossain
• Senior Assistant Secretary
• Government of the Peoples Republic of
  Bangladesh
• Ministry of Science and Information
  Communication Technology (MoSICT)
• Phone [phone], Fax [phone]
• E-mail most_at_bangla.net Web site
  http//www.mosict.gov.bd
• Global indicators workshop on community access to
  ICTs
• Mexico City16-19 November 2004

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(No Transcript)
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Country Profile

• 1. Area
  144000 Sq.Km
• 2. Population
  123.15 Million
• 3. Population density
  about 880/ sq. Km.
• 4. Divisions
  6
• 5. Districts
  64
• 6. Sub Districts (Upazila)
  465
• 7. Unions (rural)
  4484
• 8. Villages (rural)
  87319
• 9. Municipalities (urban )
  223
• 10. City Corporation
  6
• 11.Per capita GDP About
  USD 346
• Source Population Census 2001

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Telecom Infrastructure in Bangladesh

• Fixed line Telephone 0.83 Million,
  (digital 0.79 M) (Public Sector)
• Digitalized District 64
• Digitalized Sub district 165 ( out of 465, 100
  Coverage will be within 2005)
• Mobile Telephone 3.00 Million
  (Private Sector
• Teledensity 2.90 line per
  100 people (PSTN Mobile)
• Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
  Commission established in 2002
• Telephone call charge reduced significantly
• Recently fixed line phone sector has been opened
  for private sector investment.
• Mobile telecoverage reaches most of the rural
  areas
• 82000 Grameen Phone serving remotest areas
• Recently VOIP legalized

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Telecom Infrastructure in Bangladesh contd..

• 1800 KM fibre optic cable under Bangladesh
  Railway is being utilizad by the private mobile
  telephone operator
• Fibre optic link between few districts existing
  under BTTB
• Packet Switching Exchange in 9 big District HQ
  established for data communication by BTTB
• Etablishment of DDN Node in 17 district under
  progress
• BTTBs 1 million mobile phone project is yet to
  be implemented in 2005
• Fibre optic link between all district is planned
  by BTTB

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Internet

• First introduced in 1996
• Number of ISPs 159 (
  64 are actively providing services)
• 80 ISPs are located at capital Dhaka
• Government owned Bangladesh Telegraph and
  Telephone Board (BTTB) has extended ISP services
  to all 64 district HQ and 165 Sub district HQ out
  of 465
• ISP Subscriber 0.2
  Million(10 are broad band available only at
  Dhaka and Chittagong City area and rest are dial
  up)
• Number of Internet users 2 Million
• Bandwidth range Dial up-32kbps to 56 kbps,
  BB-64kbps to 8 mbps
• Technology uses VSAT
• Submarine cable yet to be connected in 2005
• PC Penetration rate is very low 1.5 Sets /1000
  Peoples
• Internet connection slow and costly, not
  affordable by general people
• Establishment of Internet Exchange is under
  implementation

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Internet in rural areas

• Villages and Unions where 80 of the rural
  peoples lives are still out of reach of internet
  facilities
• In a very few places of these rural areas some
  NGOs are working for internet connectivity, such
  as
• Grameen communication (ISP)
• Village e-mail Services
• Village internet Program
• Village cyber kiosk
• www.grameen-info.org/gc
• Grameen Shakti (ISP)
• Village e-mail Services
• Village internet Program
• www.gshakti.com

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Community e-Centres

• At present Government do not have any Community
  e-Centres program
• Ministry of Science and ICT has taken a program
  to set up few centres as pilot basis in
  cooperation with ADB and Commonwealth
  Secretariat.
• Some NGOs and SDNP of UNDP has setup very few
  centres where access to internet by community
  available
• Cyber Cafes are working as Community e- Centres
• Approximately 500 Cyber Cafes are in operation,
  most of them are located at Dhaka and Chittagong
  City
• Some are in other District HQ
• A very few are in the Sub district level

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ICT in Bangladesh

• ICT has been declared as the thrust sector by the
  Government.
• A National ICT Task Force, headed by the
  Honorable Prime Minister herself leads the ICT
  initiatives in the country.

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National ICT Policy 2002
This Policy aims at building an ICT-driven nation
comprising of knowledge-based society by the year
2006. In view of this, a country-wide
ICT-infrastructure will be developed to ensure
access to information by every citizen to
facilitate empowerment of people and enhance
democratic values and norms for sustainable
economic development by using the infrastructure
for human resources development, governance,
e-commerce, banking, public utility services and
all sorts of on-line ICT-enabled services.

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Policy Statements regarding community access to
the internet
(3.2.16 )The Internet facility will be extended
to all the district headquarters and subsequently
to its adjacent areas upto Subdistrict levels.
(3.2.17) Internet will be provided to the
educational institutions and libraries.To ensure
public access to information, Cyber Kiosks will
be set up in all Post offices, Union complex and
Upzila complex. Private sector participation will
be encouraged to set up these facilities.

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Indicators of Community Access

• No authenticated surveys has been done so far to
  asses the needs of community to access to the
  internet.
• As per ITU Digital Access Index 2002 the
  position of Bangladesh is 0.18
• Major government efforts are in the field of
  Infrastructure development and HRD in ICT
• Common peoples, specially the young, are very
  much enthusiastic to the access to the internet
• 1st Bangladesh Internet Fair in April 2004
  conducted by the ISP Association of Bangladesh
  proved the interest of the common people
• Number of internet subscribers as well as users
  of internet cafes are increasing significantly
  during recent past.

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About Questionnaire

• Indicators used in the questionnaire are not
  fully appropriate for a LDC like Bangladesh
  though the indicators are well defined
• Necessary/authenticated data are not available in
  the country
• Questions regarding number of Cyber Cafes, number
  of internet connections in Educational
  Institutions, number of Community e-Centres and
  number of users etc may be added for easy
  understanding of the questionnaire.

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Positive Steps towards Computerization

• Exemption of tax on Computer items
• Distribution of computers to schools
• Computerization of government offices
• Launching of websites of government, (e.g.
  www.bangladesh.gov.bd) Ministries/Divisions
  Legislature, Judiciary and Local Government
  institutions
• Abolition of state monopoly in Telecom
• Use of Computers at the sub-district level

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Constrains For Development
Of ICT Sector in Bangladesh

• Low compute penetration
• Low teledensity
• Internet access show and expensive
• Bangla interface lacking
• Weak data communication infrastructure
• Absence of legal infrastructure
• No law against cyber crime
• No law of electronic authentication
• No electronic certification authority
• Lack of public awareness about ICTs
• Lack of adequate human resource
• Brain Drain

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Thanks . . . . .