Written by The Banking Post
Despite rapid technological advances, nearly half of Bangladesh’s population remains without internet access, the chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has warned. Emdad ul Bari said disputes between mobile network operators and fibre-optic infrastructure providers are behind the connectivity shortfall.
At a high-level roundtable in Dhaka, Bari revealed that roughly 90 million people—40 to 45 million of them adults over 15—have no internet access. Although official statistics cite 130–135 million “users,” many consume only 2–5 MB of data once a month. Excluding these occasional users, regular internet users number just 75–80 million. Of Bangladesh’s 45 million households, only 20–22.5 million are connected.
Bari pinpointed the core problem as a failure to share fibre-optic backhaul effectively. Before 2009, each mobile operator laid its own cable, and some used tracks alongside railway fibre. Later, the government licensed the National Telecom Transmission Network (NTTN) to roll out a shared network. Today there are three state-owned and three private NTTN firms—led by Fiber@Home and Summit Communications—but mobile operators and NTTN providers remain at odds over pricing and access.
Mobile carriers want to lease “dark fibre” at flat rates, while NTTNs insist on charging by bandwidth usage. Negotiations have stalled despite a government directive in April allowing carriers to use DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) and lease dark fibre. Both sides have flexed their muscles—NTTNs even halted DWDM services—leaving the network bottlenecked and millions offline.
Bari also noted that shifting from 2G to 4G has reduced each tower’s coverage footprint by one-third, creating gaps that require more towers and infrastructure sharing. Although sharing guidelines have existed from the outset, neither operators nor NTTNs have fully complied.
Comparing Bangladesh to India, Bari said that while India needs 5 million km of fibre to launch 5G and has already deployed 4.3 million km, Bangladesh requires just 500,000 km but has documented only 160,000 km—115,000 km of which is overhead. “There has been little investment in this critical infrastructure,” he added.
Beyond fibre, low smartphone penetration is another barrier to connectivity. Operators argue that SIM locking is necessary to subsidise handsets; the BTRC has now asked device makers to implement locking measures to ensure affordable smartphones remain tied to legal networks.
Looking ahead, Bari outlined plans to simplify and deregulate the telecom regime, leaving competition to drive service quality. He also proposed a clear migration path for licence renewals: no licence will be cancelled before its expiry, and new licences will fall under a streamlined framework. Incentives for early licence conversion are under consideration.
Emdad ul Bari’s call was simple: “Without collaboration between mobile operators, NTTNs, regulators and device manufacturers, we cannot build a robust digital ecosystem.” He urged all parties to overcome their differences and work together to connect the remaining 90 million Bangladeshis.
