Govt okays Tk 95cr for NTMC’s new equipment

The government has approved procurement worth Tk 94.95 crore for the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC), which is on a one-year life extension.

The proposal, titled “Expansion of Content Blocking & Filtering System (Phase-1)”, was placed by the home ministry before the Cabinet Committee on Purchase yesterday and will be implemented by the NTMC, according to finance ministry sources.

Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury chaired the meeting held at the Secretariat.

The system will enhance the NTMC’s ability to monitor, filter, and block online content, as well as manage large-scale network traffic across multiple data centres.

NTMC first revealed in 2019 that they had installed this system as a part of an initiative to block and filter anti-government propaganda and other content to be used for criminal activities on the internet. This was disclosed during a visit by former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan at the NTMC headquarters on February 20, 2019.

Finance ministry sources said as part of the approved package for the expansion of this system, the government will procure three high-capacity next generation firewalls, two multifunctional hybrid packet brokers, three switch management cards, and equipment for six data centres.

IT products distributor Global Brand PLC will be supplying the equipment to the NTMC, which had requested tenders from nine suppliers as part of a limited tendering method process. A total of three bidders submitted their technical and financial proposals, and the lowest bidder was selected.

Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) are advanced network security devices that enable deep packet inspection, allowing the NTMC to read the content of internet traffic, identify the source of communication beyond just IP addresses, determine which applications are being used, and block traffic.

The Multifunctional Hybrid Packet Brokers are essentially internet traffic managers, located between the network and the monitoring/security tools. They collect, decrypt, and distribute the internet traffic data to the relevant monitoring tools, allowing for efficient handling of large volumes of data.

The Switch Management Cards support and coordinate internet traffic between various network monitoring components (like firewalls) and filtering tools (like deep packet inspection).

The decision comes amid ongoing debates over the NTMC future.

The agency was abolished under the Bangladesh Telecommunication Control (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, by the interim government, replacing it with a new body called the Centre for Information Support (CIS), designed to operate under stricter legal and judicial oversight.

However, as early as a week following the national parliamentary elections, the NTMC was given a new lease of life for one year, on the grounds that the replacement structure is yet to be built.