People across the country have been suffering due to the ongoing internet blackout since July 18 amid the countrywide protests and demonstrations against the killing of students.
People have been deprived of online media news, online banking services, digital transactions, digital utility payment, services of e-commerce platforms, and e-ticketing.
People across the country reported that they could not use internet by any means since Thursday 9:00pm.
Mahbub Shakil, a private jobholder, told 抖阴精品 that he was concerned over the safety of his family members and friends, but could not communicate with many of them due to internet blackout.
鈥業 have neither balance on my mobile, nor being able to recharge,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥楴ot just communication was affected, I could not complete some emergency office work.鈥�
鈥楥an shutdown of internet services be a solution to protests in a democratic country?鈥� Shakil asked.
Abu Rayhan Khan, another private jobholder, said that he could not transfer money from bank to his Bkash account as digital transactions were not possible without internet.
鈥楢TM booths are far from my home, I am concerned about how safe it is to go outside amid the unrest,鈥� he said.
Hospital services too are affected because of this blackout.
A physician said that many services in hospitals depend on internet, including data entry of patients, inter-department communication, emergency information search and identifying symptoms in some cases.
The IT sector of the country dealt a heavy blow in this situation.
鈥榃e will face long term negative impact. Our clients will go elsewhere if we cannot fulfill their demand, and we will not be able to attract new clients with damaged reputation,鈥� said Russell T Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services.
He estimated that the average daily loss of in the IT sector would be Tk聽70-80 crore.
Media outlets have not been able to publish news through online platforms since Thursday night.
Many of the prepaid meter users remained without electricity since they ran out of their balance after the suspension of internet service.
Power Development Board officials said that they kept their vending machines at all their distribution offices where people can go and recharge.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission chairman Md Mohiuddin Ahmed said that the internet services were disrupted due to the fire at a Mohakhali building that houses data centres supplying a large volume of internet traffic.
BTRC said that it would take more time to fix, and reinstate the internet services.
But, according to the Internet Services Providers鈥� Association of Bangladesh, no such incident happened.
Due to a fire incident at an adjacent building, some underground and overhead data cables got damaged, which affected 20-30 per cent of the internet supply, said Emdadul Haque, president of ISPAB.
State minister for posts, telecommunications, and information technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said on Saturday that the authorities were working to fix the damaged data centres and data supplying cables to reinstate internet services.
