Connectivity Providers Database

Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 00:01:49 +0500 From: Irfan Khan <KhanIA@super.net.pk> To: s-asia-it@apnic.net Background of the internet in Bangladesh from in-country perspective. Jan Willem van Nus, 21/09/1999 The history of internet is not that old even in developed countries. The people of Bangladesh had to remain in dark about it for a long time because of the non-availability of the service in this part of the globe. The main obstacle to start the service was to have data circuits to a suitable overseas location. However in this condition a few young talents started dial-up e-mail service and made it commercially available for public use. In late 1995 the government of Bangladesh invited applications to subscribe the VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) data circuits. Introduction On June 4, 1996 the VSAT base data circuit was commissioned for the first time in the country. Upon VSAT commisioning, internet connectivity was established & its services were made available to the public. After internet was launched, the June 1996 National polls results were made available to the netizens of the world using world wide web. This was the first ever usage event of its kind in Bangladesh. The effort was appreciated in many corners specially among the Bangladeshies living abroad. Later many popular events were put on the web servers to make these available on the Internet. Couple of these included 'cyclone warning' and 'disaster information', cricket match, a wide variety of busines information, local educational programmes, entertainment and many more. After the introduction of Internet, the use of email increased exponentially owing to point to point direct transmission. Prior to it dial-up links were used to communicate to an overseas e-mail server using international phone calls. The uploading & downloading of mails took place using UUCPs (Unix-to-Unix copy). Use of chat and introduction of usenet news were also a significant addition to the local users of the net. Now with on-line services all other usage and services of the Internet are available to the end users of the internet in Bangladesh too. Growth of Local Internet The mid 1996 introduction of Internet did not instantly create a market. At the end of year, there were only two ISPs in the country and the number of users were close to one thousand only. The year 1997 recorded a tremendous growth. The total number of ISPs were more than a dozen and the clientele growth was ten times higher than that of the previous year. Afterwards, a few new ISPs started their venture recording a proportionate growth in number of users. As of now the total number of ISPs in the country is approximately eighteen and there are approximately 30 thousand users connected to them. In last couple of years, some wide variety of Internet services popularly known as value added services, were introduced. These includes Internet fax & internet telephony services. Problems encountered by ISPs All the major ISPs of Bangladesh are providing the internet service using the satellite links VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminal). Data circuits using such setup has a natural time delay of more than 500 milliseconds to cross the satellite hop and to reach the down end of the link. ISPs elsewhere use optical fiber links for internet connectivity. The optical fiber runs over the surface of the earth so the points there can be connected using much shorter length in contrast to propagation length of satellite transmissions. Moreover as optical fibers use the frequency of light so that higher band width is available from a single link than that of satellite. In this local ISPs are lagging. Because of the high cost of the satellite links, most of the ISPs have single VSAT circuits with their upstream provider either at HongKong or Singapore. Only two providers have two VSAT circuits. As the VSAT circuit also have down-time, so it is difficult for ISPs with single VSAT to ensure un-interrupted service. The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board BT&TB, a state monopoly controls and acts as only local VSAT operator. BT&TB, as of now is the sole provider of land line phone as well. Processing of need requests for VSAT data circuit & phone lines through BT&TB, often takes long time and extra effort. Other commonly observed problems of least developed countries also present here. These are less exposures to computers, illiteracy and poor paying capacity of the users. Many ISPs in the country are undecided to provide services like Internet telephony, fax-to-fax and voice over IP, as the policy of the government on these are not clear. Some, however, take advantage of the ambiguity in the policy and offer telephone and fax services. Other simply refrain from venturing into these. Role of BT&TB It has already been mentioned that, as of now the BT&TB is providing the VSAT data circuit to the uses. Majority of them are the ISPs. The BT&TB arranges these circuits from other VSAT operators & then simply leases out these to local VSAT subscribers. For a VSAT connection, each subscriber has to sign an agreement with the BT&TB. To the effect that the subscriber will not provide a service competitive to them (BT&TB). So far all the VSAT subscribers in order to comply with the agreement used their VSAT data circuits either for their private use or for Internet connectivity. Recently the BT&TB has launched its own Internet services and by implication competing in the domain of the ISPs. In Bangladesh the banks, commercial offices, institutions and nterprises are managed in an isolated fashion. This happens due to the absence of appropriate computing application platforms and due to the lack of suitable networks. Many organizations are investing on application development. But integration of these developments for corporate management still remain a far cry. This is due to the non- availability of the appropriate communication facility for speedy data transfer even in Dhaka city. Many organization try to fill the gap either by radio communication or through the use of conventional telephony. But the effort often ends up in frustration because of their high oprerational cost against less bandwidth. The BT&TB has laid optical fiber, to connect their telephone exchanges scattered throughout the Dhaka city. This optical fiber links may be extended to other users on commercial basis. In places like Hongkong, all ISPs are connected to an Internet exchange. This maintains a route for local data and provides backup redundant links to all the connected ISPs. So the exchange of local data takes place within the territory, and on the event of failure of their main links, the ISPs are not totally cut off. Similar setups may be possible to establish here and this will not only generate money for the enterprise but also help in optimizing the country's expensive Internet traffic utilization. If the optical fiber networking appears to be expensive, the DSL (Digital Subscriber Lines) technologies can be used using the pairs of copper wire only. If used, it will eliminate the cost of laying optical fibers. However the cost of equipment in DSL will be higher. A cost benefit analysis based on a preliminary design will provide the exact answer between there two options. Bangladesh is among those countries who do not have an optical fiber link connected to the the world's information superhighway. VSAT technology is quite inferior in today's state of art data- communication technology. This is because of its inherent delay in communication. So the government and the BT&TB in particular should establish a node directly connected to world's information super highway. Recommendation & Suggestion: It appears to us that the Internet services here have manifold problems. Some of these, such as illiteracy and limited access to computers are related to the country's overall economic status and are difficult to address in short span of time. However other problems related to policy ot the Government and BT&TB activity can be addressed. Currently the policies for monitoring and facilitating data- communication and ISPs are determined by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MOPT). But this is technically dominated by BT&TB, which itself has become a provider. The policy committee should therefore, comprise members drawn from the private sector, ISPs, network specialists etc. This should be done immediately. http://www.iicd.org/search/show-entry.ap?entryid=3869&part=all