Bangladesh: Gebühren für ISP sinken

Meldung: Tuesday December 31, 2002

New perk for ISPs - Bandwidth rate, renewal fees drastically cut (Anmerkung: Wechselkurs am 1.1.03 1Taka= 0,17 Euro) The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has reduced the tariff of different segments of the Internet service providers (ISPs). The move is aimed at allowing more access to Internet and foster the growth of the information communication technology (ICT). "The BTRC has taken these measures to encourage people to use Internet, a key to development of information technology," BTRC Chairman Syed Marghub Morshed told reporters at a press conference at the conference room of the BTRC while announcing the tariff rationalisation. He said the tariff rationalisation was done according to the recommendations made at a meeting of the ICT taskforce, where noted economist and Managing Director of Grameen Bank Prof. Mohammad Yunus proposed reduction of the ISP license and renewal fees. In a move to further rationalise tariff, the BTRC has categorised ISPs in four segments with those in Dhaka, Chittagong or Sylhet cities, where there is concentration of ISPs, coming under category "A". ISPs in the district level fall into category "B" and those in upazila level go under category "C". Category "D" is for ISPs that want to use one license for covering the whole country. The BTRC has halved the renewal fee to Tk 1 lakh from 2 lakh for category "A" ISPs. The fee for application form has been reduced to Tk 500 from Tk 5,000 and annual bandwidth fee from 128kbps (kilobytes per second) to more than 512kbps has been fixed between Tk 15,000 and Tk 100,000. Previously, it was between Tk 30,000 and Tk 400,000 for 64kbps up to 2mbps (megabyte per second). Annual renewal of bandwidth fee has been refixed at Tk 1,000 for more than 512kbps and Tk 400,000 for 2mbps. The fee for change in the name and location of ISPs each has been fixed at Tk 15,000 from the previous Tk 60,000. Cyber café license fee has been fixed at Tk 1,000. "This nominal charge has been fixed to encourage cyber café, which make Internet available to general masses. It will also help the BTRC to have an account of cyber cafes, which is a tool for education and development of the ICT sector," Morhsed said. License fee for category "B" ISPs located at district level has been fixed at Tk 1 lakh, which previously was Tk 2 lakh. And their annual bandwidth fees have been refixed at the range between Tk 15,000 and Tk 50,000 against Tk 30,000 and Tk 400,000. License and renewal fees for category "C' ISPs have been fixed at Tk 1,000 each against Tk 200,000 previously. The bandwidth renewal fee for district level ISPs has been waived. The BTRC for the first time agreed to provide nationwide ISP license at the cost of Tk 5 lakh with an annual renewal fee of Tk 3 lakh. The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) yesterday hailed the BTRC decision for further rationalisation of tariff of ISP license and VSAT (very small aperture terminal) license. "We congratulate the BTRC on making this move to reduce the basic license fee of ISPs which will help ICT to grow and enhance the Internet use," ISPA President Akhtaruzzaman Manju told The Daily Star yesterday. He, however, said ISP license should incorporate the VSAT license because all the ISPs need to use VSAT for satellite link. This is for the second time the BTRC has rationalised the tariff after it came into being in January this year. Earlier, when the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and the Ministry of Finance used to run the affairs, a VSAT licensee cost US$3,500.