Its a report about the present situation of Internet

1. Internet in Bangladesh
Like many developed and developing countries, the Internet in Bangladesh has
witnessed phenomenal growth. Although facing many constraints in expanding Internet
accessand use, development of the Internet and Information Technology are high
government priorities. In 2013, Internet users in Bangladesh increased to 33 million.
Internet top-level domain
The top-level domain for Bangladesh is .bd.
Evolution
Starting in the early 1990s, Bangladesh had dialup access to e-mail using the Bulletin Board
Systems (BBSs) of a few local providers, but the number of users did not total more than 500.
Users were charged by the kilobyte and email was transferred from the BBS service providers to
the rest of the world by international dialup using UUCP.
In June 1996 the first VSAT base data circuit in the country was commissioned and
the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) granted licenses to two Internet Service
Providers (ISPs). In subsequent years more liberal government policies led to a rapid expansion
of the industry, resulting in over 180 registered ISP's by 2005. ISPs are currently regulated by
the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) through the Bangladesh
Telecommunications Act
In May 2006 Bangladesh inaugurated new submarine optic fiber connectivity as part of the 16
country consortium SEA-ME-WE 4 project. The landing station is in Cox's Bazar, the southern
city near the Bay of Bengal. In July 2008 the Submarine Cable Project was transformed into the
company Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), which is now responsible
for all services related to the submarine cable.
Between June and August 2012 international Internet service in Bangladesh was slowed
following a cable cut on the eastern leg of the SEA-ME-WE 4 optical fiber cable and the fact that
Bangladesh does not have an alternative submarine cable or other high-speed international
connections. In 2014 the new SEA-ME-WE 5 cable is expected to provide an alternative
operating at 100 Gbit/s, roughly 10 times faster than the current connetion.
Usage
The number of Internet subscriptions in Bangladesh grew from 186,000 in 2000 to 617,300 in
2009. However, only 0.4% of the population used the Internet in 2009 giving Bangladesh one of

2. the lowest usage percentages in the world, ahead of only North Korea, Myanmar, and Sierra
Leone. This limited Internet penetration is due to many factors, including: high costs, little local
content, limited or poor service quality, lack of infrastructure with the last mile often limited to
dial-up, too many providers competing in a relatively small market, and low literacy rates. By
2011 however, the number of Internet users in Bangladesh had seen phenomenal growth of over
900% bringing the total number of users to 5,501,609 (3.5% of the total population) mainly due
to wide availability of mobile Internet access.
In April 2010, Akhtaruzzaman Manju, president of Internet Service Providers' Association of
Bangladesh, said "we've estimated that nearly 10 million people in the country are using 800,000
Internet connections on sharing basis", adding the number of Internet users in the country is
increasing roughly 15-16 percent a year. “This increased Internet penetration will result in a 2.6
per cent contribution to the country’s GDP by 2020, while creating 129 thousand more jobs by
the same year” the research added.
The main obstacle to using the Internet in Bangladesh is its distribution. The Internet is still
an urban privilege because telephone connections are more concentrated in urban areas,
particularly in and around Dhaka. Mobile operators are providing substantial services in and
outside urban areas using EDGE/GPRS or EVDO.
YEAR Users Population
2000 100,000 134,824,000
2007 450,000 137,493,990
2009 556,000 156,050,883
2010 617,300 158,065,841
2011 5,501,609 158,570,535
Note: Per Capita GDP in US dollars, source: International Monetary Fund.

3. Service quality
The Internet’s speed in Bangladesh is among the slowest in the world. As of August 2012,
Bangladesh ranked 168th out of 184 countries on the Household Download Index by Net Index.
Internet connectivity with acceptable quality and reliability is generally quite expensive in
Bangladesh. Since connecting to the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable in 2006, the country has seen Internet
bandwidth prices drop significantly. In 2008, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory
Commission (BTRC) slashed wholesale Internet bandwidth prices drastically, from BDT 80,000
(approximately USD 1,125) per Mbit/s to BDT 18,000 (approximately USD 250) per Mbit/s. In
2009, after complaints that retail prices were still too high for slow, unreliable connections, the
BTRC indicated that they were going to begin monitoring ISPs to ensure that retail prices
reflected the reduced wholesale prices.[11]
The government sees information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a key driver of
socioeconomic development. This is reflected in the government's "Digital Bangladesh" plan as
well as the National Information and Communication Technology Policy. Bangladesh is slowly
moving up in the world-wide ICT rankings, rising from 130th in 2009 to 113th in 2012 in the
"networked readiness index". But, while its ITC ranking has improved, Bangladesh still lags
behind other low-income countries of its stature. Progress is limited due to deficiencies in the
regulatory framework and infrastructure development. And ICT leaders are concerned that the
annual budget does not support the government's ICT goals.
2000 2007 2009 2010 2011
100,000
450,000 556,000
617,300
5,501,609
Chart Title
YEAR Users

4. Internet services
National Internet Exchanges (NIXs) and International Internet Gateways
(IIGs)
All ISPs and equivalent service providers in Bangladesh exchange traffic via two systems, the National Internet
Exchange (NIX) and International Internet Gateways (IIGs). The IIGs provide global Internet connectivity, while
all domestic Internet traffic is routed via the NIX to minimize usage of international bandwidth.[18]
The NIX
consists of two exchange points known as the Bangladesh Internet Exchange (BDIX) established in August
2004 and operated by the Sustainable Development Networking Programme and the Peering Society of
Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Society of Internet Exchange (BSIX) established in May 2004. In June 2012
the BTRC announced plans to issue an unrestricted number of additional NIX licenses.[21]
There are two IIGs in
service operated by, Mango Teleservices Limited and the government owned Bangladesh Telecommunications
Company Limited (BTCL).
There are concerns that, with a limited number of NIX operators, only two IIG operators, and with BSCCL
holding a monopoly as the only operator of the SEA-ME-WE fiber optic cables, limited competition will keep the
cost of raw bandwidth high.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
In 2005 there were more than 180 ISPs operating in the country. ISP's are regulated by
the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). In 2011 there were 111
licensed ISPs providing services nationwide and 84 ISPs providing services in the central zone.
Mobile operators[
Because fixed line penetration rates are and are expected to remain low, most Bangladeshis' first
experience with the Internet is likely to be via mobile services. An estimated 90% of
Bangladesh's Internet users got their access using mobile services in 2010. Out of the six mobile
operators, one of them Teletalk offers 3G services, others offer EDGE orGPRS GSM Internet
service. The sole CDMA operator, Citycell, offers EVDO.
Broadband
Broadband Internet and e-commerce in Bangladesh is slowly progressing. In 2009 there were
50,000 fixed broadband Internet subscribers. Though broadband Internet access is available, the
charges for high speed connections are higher than in other south Asian countries, though this is
changing. In Bangladesh Broadband is legally defined as 128/128 kbit/s, which is not in line
with the ITU's definition and many broadband Internet services may not be considered true
broadband internationally.

5. WiMAX
Three companies, BanglaLion Communications Ltd., Brac Bdmail Network Ltd., and Augere
Wireless Broadband Bangladesh Ltd., won licenses to operate WiMAX in Bangladesh in
September 2008.[33] The three firms purchased the licenses at auction for 2.15 billion BDT (31
million USD) from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commissionunder an
agreement that pays 27.50% of revenue to the government. Brac Bdmail declined to start the
service. BanglaLion and Augere (branded as Qubee) launched commercial WiMax services by
the end of 2009.
From October 2011 Access Telecom (BD) Ltd. and Tackyon started giving fixed WiMax
services to their clients.
Expensive and slow connections available from individual homes has created a demand for cyber
cafés with higher than average bandwidth. The number of cyber cafés was estimated to be
roughly 800 in 2009, unchanged from 2005.[37] Cyber cafés were first regulated by the BTRC in
2009, but fewer than 150 had obtained the required license by the end of 2011.
Many cyber cafés have expanded as Local Service Providers (LSPs) as a way to make use of
their idle (out of business hours) bandwidth. Because the root problem of scarce bandwidth
remains, LSP subscribers continue to suffer from slow connections and inadequate bandwidth
(96-128 kbit/s on average). A general complaint of customers and internet users is that such
subscriptions are good for nothing except for surfing rich-text and images over the web. The
younger internet users in the urban areas have started to familiarize themselves with other more
data demanding internet applications and usage. But, Streaming applications fail to work over
low bandwidth. Games, voice, video-conferencing and the like also suffer from latency issues.
Further, these LSPs are known to forcefully cache web resources (transparent proxies) and to
aggressively block traffic related to the following applications in order to save bandwidth:
Windows update, TeamViewer and similar remote assistance applications, Torrent trackers and
other P2P ports/patterns, voice/video applications which mostly make use of P2P architecture,
online gaming and just about anything else except WWW. Some LSPs generally block all ports
except HTTP/HTTPS. Bandwidth/latency benchmarking sites including SpeedTest.net are
blocked to stop customers from complaining about their share of bandwidth.
Despite these limitations, LSPs seem to do quite well by keeping the majority of the customers
happy with local FTP servers, mostly filled with pirated movies, software, games, TV-series, and
the like.
Internet censorship and surveillance

6. The OpenNet Initiative found little or no evidence of filtering in 2011
Although Internet access in Bangladesh is not restricted by a national level filtering regime, the
state has intervened to block Web sites for hosting anti-Islamic content and content deemed
subversive. Internet content is regulated by existing legal frameworks that restrict material
deemed defamatory or offensive, as well as content that might challenge law and order.
The Bangla blogging platform Sachalayatan was reported to be inaccessible on 15 July 2008, and
was forced to migrate to a new IP address. Although the blocking was not officially confirmed,
Sachalayatan was likely Bangladesh’s inaugural filtering event. YouTube was blocked for a few
days in March 2009 in order to protect the “national interest”. The disputed video covered a
partial audio recording of a meeting between the prime minister and military officials, who were
angry at the government’s handling of a mutiny by border guards in Dhaka that left more than
seventy people dead.
Facebook was blocked by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
for 7 days starting on 29 May 2010 because of "obnoxious images", including depictions
of Mohammed and several of the country's political officials as well as links
to pornographic sites.[43] The block was lifted after Facebook agreed to remove the offensive
content.[44] During the same period a 30-year-old man was arrested in the Bangladeshi capital on
charges of uploading satiric images of some political leaders on Facebook.
The BTRC again blocked YouTube access in September 2012 after Google, Inc. ignored
requests to remove the controversial film, Innocence of Muslims, from the site.
On 16 May 2013 BTRC asked the international internet gateway operators to reduce the upload
bandwidth of ISPs by 75% in an effort to prevent illegal VoIP. There is speculation that the
bandwidth reduction is actually an effort to make it difficult for people to upload ‘problematic’
videos, images, TV talk show clips, etc. in the social media.