Take broadband to the masses
ICT experts echo at eAsia seminar
Jerry Mobbs, CEO, Qubee speaks at the seminarPhoto: STAR
ICT analysts yesterday said broadband services should be technology-neutral and medium-independent -- wired or wireless. They spoke at a seminar on the first day of the three-day eAsia 2011 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka. The seminar focused on how to take the broadband internet to the masses. Sunil Kanti Bose, telecom secretary, said the government is going to adopt wireless and wired services. Third-generation (3G) licences for mobile operators will be provided by the middle of the next year, while efforts to develop fiber-optic cables are on. It is projected that the country will have 30 percent internet penetration by 2015 and 40 percent by 2021. He also said the broadband price will go down in phases as it has been decreasing for the last few years. Rohan Samarajiva, moderator of the seminar and chief executive officer of LIRNEasia, an ICT policy and regulation think-tank based in Sri Lanka, said the market should open up to the entrepreneurs as the population is increasing fast. He said everybody will be connected wireless and access to the internet should be open to all. Per-Henrik Nielsen, managing director, Ericsson Bangladesh, said broadband can be wireless, wired or be served via satellite. A mixed solution should be deployed in the country, he said. There should be dialogue among government, industry leaders and users to find out what they can gain from it, Nielsen said. The Digital Bangladesh vision should not go for 2021, it should be implemented by 2015, he hoped. Jerry Mobbs, CEO of Qubee, said the company is serving 20 percent of wireless broadband users in Bangladesh through Wimax technology. Most Asian countries have rail and road links with each other, speakers said. Now it is time to establish cross-border telecom links, they added. It was also mentioned that the internet bandwidth price is still high in Bangladesh. Infrastructure and affordability are major challenges for the investors and internet users. In a question-answer session, Mobbs said 1 megabits per second (Mbps) internet price is Tk 10,000 in Bangladesh but the same amount of internet bandwidth can be available in Delhi just at Tk 2730 ($35).
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