The latest survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) shows an impressive rate (98.9 per cent) of penetration of mobile phones at the household level in Bangladesh in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (2025-26). In comparison, the rate of Smartphone use is over 72 per cent. So far as the penetration of these digital devices among the population is concerned, we can say that the development is considerable. The ubiquitous presence of mobile phone sets among the people from all walks of life means that owning a communication device like mobile phone is no more a symbol of status as it was the case with the pre-digital-era analog land phones. From that point of view, the modern-day mobile phone service is more egalitarian than the pre-digital era Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). However, more important than owning a mobile phone set is what percentage of the various services available from a mobile telephone its owner is capable of using. Though mobile phone penetration rate among the households is very high, only 8.0 per cent of them have computer skills. When it comes to full digital literacy, it was just over 6.0 per cent, so far as recent reports go. For instance, among the youths, even those from low-income backgrounds with little or no literacy at all, we see a tendency to possess rather expensive smartphone sets. But what do they do with those smartphone sets? As everyone knows, they use it mainly for idle chat with friends over the social media, or for simply videoing for the right or wrong purpose. So, though the high percentage of smartphones usage among the population may look very impressive from the commercial point of view, that is, rise in the figurer of mobile phone sales, still, it cannot be a measure of how those electronic communication devices are being used as part of increasing digital literacy among the population.
Here, digital literacy is not just about how to operate the devices including some of the software. On the contrary, to be fully digitally literate, the user should be able to search the required information, critically assess its credibility and see if it has any inherent bias towards or against any social segment, race or religion, age group, gender, etc. Also, a digitally literate person should be able to create digital content in the form of text or video and share it via email or social media. But being able to create content and share it through email or social media is not the sole criteria of a (properly) digitally literate person, since the user should also be able to protect data, maintain data privacy and behave responsibly online.
Evidently, such digital knowledge helps the user to find jobs, access online educational/research facilities, make use of various services available on the websites run by the government or private organisations. In sum, to be digitally literate means to be literate or educated in the old sense of the term. In fact, a smartphone in the hand of a modern-day youth is not just a toy for fun, but a digital window to the wide world of knowledge and skills. So, it is important that the owner of the mobile phone has the necessary skill to make optimum use of the device. Now the question is, what percentage of the youths buying the expensive smartphones are using the powerful digital device to enhance their knowledge and skill in various trades to improve their living standards? Unfortunately, the mobile phones, smart or otherwise, are not only being underutilised, they are often being abused. According to a report, in 2024, globally 70 per cent of the online fraud was committed through mobile platforms, while 83 per cent of the phishing sites (a fraudulent website that impersonates legitimate brands, banks or other valuable service providers to steal sensitive personal information/data such as password, credit card numbers, etc.) targeted mobile phone sets. However, there is no such statistics available for Bangladesh. Even so, it can be assumed that the percentage of mobile phones' use for criminal purpose or as phishing sites is considerable. Now with the introduction of AI chatbot like ChatGPT, which can be accessed online from the mobile platforms, the potential for positive as well as negative use of the device has increased exponentially. Whatever the case, Bangladesh cannot remain outside the global tide of the new technologies, their spread online and accessibility through mobile platforms. Against this backdrop, is Bangladesh duly prepared to embrace this new wave of digital technology available online?
The BBS survey findings as referred to in the foregoing hardly provide an encouraging picture in this regard. As the BBS reports for the first quarter of FY26 reveals, 50.4 per cent of the households were internet users. But compared with the internet usage at 55.1 per cent at the end of FY25, i.e, on June 2025, the (internet) usage during July-September period actually declined by 4.7 percentage points. Clearlly, according to this latest BBS survey, about half of the country's population is still digitally excluded. Worse yet, going by the same survey, the coverage of the internet service among the people is decreasing rather than increasing with the passage of time. While the government should look into this anomaly and address it, efforts should be there to increase the internet coverage among the people. In truth, Bangladesh is far behind its next-door neighbour in internet usage where the coverage rate is 70 per cent, while in Pakistan, the coverage is more than 60 per cent. According to some experts on software and information services, Bangladesh's position in comparison is disappointing. Unfortunately, it is the government's wrong policy about internet that is holding back the service's growth in the country. To be precise, here, the highly taxed data has made the internet service pricier than some of its neighbours. Taking the 20 per cent supplementary duty along with VAT, revenue sharing, spectrum-related costs, more than 50 per cent of the data cost is absorbed by the government. In other words, to expand internet service among all segments of the population, especially the low-income ones, the government needs to reduce data price. At the same time, the prices of smartphones have to be lowered so larger volumes of data as well as latest technologies could be made accessible to all segments of the population. That is how the public will be able to draw maximum benefits from the reported high penetration of mobile phones in the country.
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