Mahmudul Hasan

The home ministry has decided to allow the National Telecommunications Monitoring Centre (NTMC) to continue operating for another year, even though the previous interim administration had moved to abolish the much-criticised surveillance agency.

Bangladesh’s telecom sector recorded a slight fall in total mobile phone subscribers in December 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier, due mainly to a drop in active connections after new limits on SIM ownership per individual.

Corporate rivalry in Bangladesh’s telecom sector is nothing new. Operators have long competed fiercely on price, network quality, and subscriber acquisition. But 2025 saw that rivalry erupt not through marketing campaigns, but through formal complaints, regulatory challenges, and court petitions.

Bangladesh’s information technology (IT) exports grew 13.54 percent in the first five months of fiscal year 2025-26, buoyed by accelerating global artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and the widening digitalisation of services, according to government data.

The government has directed the telecom regulator to allocate a majority share of the remaining 700 MHz spectrum to state-owned operator Teletalk Bangladesh, despite the company having more than Tk 5,500 crore in unpaid spectrum fees and other liabilities.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the country’s internet regulator, is taking a cautious approach to Starlink Services Bangladesh Ltd’s proposal to export unfiltered internet bandwidth to neighbouring countries via local cable providers, and will seek the government’s opinion before approval.

With Bangladesh striving to build a digital future, information and communications technology (ICT) and telecom have moved from specialised policy areas to key issues in the electoral debate.

Bangladesh’s telecom regulator is seeking legal advice on arbitration proposals from the county’s two largest mobile operators to resolve a dispute over Tk 13,447 crore in audit claims.