The day Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad Shirin Sharmin eulogised the people's movement ahead courtesy of information technology towards building a smart Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Submarine Cable PLC (BSCPLC) shut down bandwidth of 19 of the country's 34 International Internet Gateway (IIG) companies. On Friday the speaker also stressed the need for making the most of the technology for that purpose but, as an anti-climax, the BSCPLC at midnight the same day snapped or limited services to those companies for non-payment of outstanding dues. The result understandably was slow internet speed at the level of end users, subscribers that is.
Now, subscribers of broadband internet suffer for no fault of their own. The unpaid bills of the 19 IIG companies amount to Tk3.84 billion. It is their fault but subscribers of internet do not have any direct link with the IIGs. In between there are internet service providers (ISPs). The IIGs purchase bandwidths from the BSCPLC and make those available to the ISPs. Now the question is, if IIGs also do business on credit. About one thing there is, however, no doubt that subscribers, except in rare cases, have to pay their bills regularly to get continuous service. Then why should the IIGs default on payment of their dues? They find themselves at an advantageous position from where they can force the ISPs to honour business terms and conditions. Presumably, the rest 15 of the 34 IIGs have cleared their dues so that their bandwidths were not terminated or limited.
Who exactly is to blame for the internet fracas can be pointed out if all the facts are available. But so far it has been disclosed that the non-paying companies were intimated through official letters of their obligations months before. Whether this was accompanied with a warning of the action to be taken is not known. A spokesman for IIGs claims serving a notice seven days before such an action is obligatory but no such notice was issued. If there was none, the BSCPLC also did not quite follow the usual procedures. Internet service at the end users' level is as crucial as the utility services, at times even more when it comes to maintaining deadlines of outsourcing.
This cannot be the best of example of the best use of information technology. When this kind of undesirable developments hampers internet service to the consumers, it cannot be compensated by any rhetoric. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) issued a directive in the first week of October, 2021 to the effect that a subscriber does not have to pay bill for three consecutive days' slow internet speed and in case of an entire day's slow speed, 50 per cent of the monthly bill has to be waived. There are other benefits subscribers are entitled to enjoy for disruption of internet service.
Now what happens if the internet speed remains down for days together because of the BSCPLC's punitive action against IIGs. Here the ISPs are not at fault but under the BTRC's directive, subscribers are not bound to pay bills for three consecutive days' slow speed. If 15 IIGs could maintain updated payment of dues, no excuses are tenable from the defaulting 19 companies. Is it wilful non-payment or otherwise? If wilful, their contracts or licences should be cancelled provided they do not pay dues within a stipulated grace period.
Since the BSCPLC is owned by the government, some entities may try to take undue advantage. If anyone harbours any such notion, it has to be strictly dealt with. But was the action ---one that negatively impacted the subscribers ---the only option to teach the bill defaulters a lesson? Attention had to be paid for exploration of every other option before taking this ultimate action. Service disruption of unusual order means production loss and mental stress for thousands who have to meet their outsourcing deadlines.
According to the Speedtest Global Index, Ookla, a US-based organisation which prepares country-specific internet speeds, Bangladesh holds 111th position out of 142 and this too is an improvement on 2022's 119th slot. Clearly, Bangladesh needs to improve its internet speed and also bring down the charge at the subscribers' level.
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