Dr. Avnish Jolly:Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (BRTA) has slashed submarine cable bandwidth charges to support government’s plan of providing free internet connectivity to primary schools. BRTA officials confirmed the private BDNews24 report saying it has issued a letter re-fixing bandwidth charges to increase the use of the internet in educational institutions.
Claiming that the benefits of IT have not reached the people of Bangladesh to the anticipated level, Major General (Retd.) Manzurul Alam, Chairman, BTRA said that they have directed the internet service providers to make the reset charges effective immediately as the government plans to offer the internet connections, upto 64kbps, to the primary schools free of cost.
The Internet connections would also be available at reduced rates – 75 per cent reduced costs – for public universities, colleges, schools, madrasas and other educational institutions under Monthly Payment Order. Different government, semi-government, autonomous organisations and call centres will get bandwidth at 20-60 per cent less prices. Software exporters, medical transcription services, IT-enabled service providers and international internet gateway also will get the same discount facility, according to the report.