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BTN moves forward to connect rural lands
TIM Nurul Kabir, chairperson DKF (Digital Knowledge Foundation) and treasurer BTN speaks at the event.
Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN), a coalition of organisations for fostering telecentre movement in Bangladesh, organised a discussion session on 'Rural Connectivity: Bangladesh Perspective' at Spectra Convention Center on November 17. This session was organised with a vision to analysis the impact of modern communication technology in rural areas. In addition, discussants also highlighted the role of telecentres to uplift the socio economic condition in unprivileged community. According to BTN, nearly forty thousand telecentres will be installed across the country within 2012. With this aim BTN is now moving forward to create social awareness as well as take right initiative to connect rural lands to information superhighway. In his welcome note, Dr Ananya Raihan, secretary general of BTN and executive director of D.Net (Development Research Network), stressed the necessity of collective effort of government, private stake holders, academia and media to build a sustainable information and knowledge based system for the under developed community. N H Chowdhury, former chairman BTTB (Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board) and former commissioner BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) in his keynote speech presented some guidelines to narrow the digital divide. He mentioned some technologies such as FTTH/FTC, WiMAX, ATM-IP transmission etc for rural connectivity. He also said that, "In rural areas internet access is still expensive and in this regard cell phone operators should come forward to offer special economical packages for rural people". He also emphasised on local content development and return on investment strategies. Special guest of the session, Abdus Salam, president Ispab (Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh), disclosed the setbacks of ISPs to extend their services outside the Dhaka city. He stressed the need for government support as well as donor agencies to disseminate all ISP services around the country. Fahim Mashroor of Basis (Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services) raised some critical issues regarding rural development through ICT. He said that, "The price of submarine cable is too high but in reality we are now using only 10 percent of available bandwidth". He also asked everyone to raise their voice against cyber crime and urged the government to take proper measures to uproot this malpractice. S M Wahiduzzaman, secretary, Ministry of Science and ICT assured that government is concerned about all hindrances and the concentrated effort is underway to strengthen the ICT infrastructure in the country. He also expresses his commitment to provide proper assistances to BTN to conduct its operation. TIM Nurul Kabir, chairperson DKF (Digital Knowledge Foundation) and treasurer BTN moderated the entire programme. Edward Apurba Singha
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