PM urges telcos to slash call rate

The government is going to enact "The Digital Security Act" to ensure safe, secure and optimum use of internet and information technology in the country.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said this while inaugurating the Bangladesh Internet Week-2015 from her Gonobhaban residence in the city on Saturday.
She said digital technology should be particularly safe for children and it should not be used for terrorist and militant activities and for hurting religious sentiment of the people, reports BSS.
Safe and secure use of information technology is crucial alongside its expansion, she added.
"We have to create awareness so that people refrain from using Internet with any evil intention of creating instability in the society," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said her government has slashed the price of bandwidth eight times and now the price is Tk 625 against Tk 78,000 in 2008.
She urged telephone operators to reciprocate with the government's initiative and reduce call rate.
The programme of the week is being observed in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions and 487 upazilas across the country under the auspices of ICT Division, BASIS and GrameenPhone.
State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Pakak, president of BASIS Shameem Ahsan and CEO of GrameenPhone Rajib Shetty also spoke among others on the occasion.
After inaugurating the week, the prime minister talked with Finance Minister AMA Muhith, ICT secretary Shyamsundar Sikder from Banani Society Ground in the city.
Sheikh Hasina also talked to the local leaders of Tungipara of Gopalganj, Peerganj of Rangpur, Companyganj of Slyhet, Singra of Natore and Barisal Sadar Upazila through videoconference using BanglaGovNet and InfoSarker-2 network.
The Internet Week-2015 is being observed in the country with the slogan of "password of development is in your hand."
The primary objective of the week is to reach internet to 10 million people through internet fairs and giving all out idea to people about internet to create 15 million new users in the next one year.
One of the main objectives of the week is to bring the people under internet network and provide half of them with broadband connections to fulfill the target of earning US$1.0 billion dollar from the ICT sector by 2018,
$5.0 billion by 2021 and $50 billion by 2041.