Internet users have continued to report ongoing internet problems, even though the government restored broadband connections on Wednesday.
Residents from various parts of the capital Dhaka said that they were struggling to use essential services, including mobile financial services, digital utility payment, internet banking and ATM machines, making daily tasks like paying for essentials difficult.
Sudipto Haider, a private jobholder in Dhaka, said that he was facing severe crisis as most service payments and cash withdrawals heavily depended on internet.
鈥業 am saddened as the vision of digital Bangladesh turned feeble and became a problem for me,鈥� he said.
鈥楨ven now, the ATMs are not reopening. I fear, if the dire situation lingers, I will lose trust in internet and focus more on cash in hand, which will eventually mean less dependency on online banking,鈥� he added.
The Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh confirmed that broadband connections were restored on Wednesday evening.
Earlier that day, state minister for posts, telecommunications, and information technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak announced that broadband connections would be restored across the country on a trial basis.
However, mobile internet services are still down with no clear timeline for restoration.
Md Emdadul Hoque, president of the ISPAB, explained that disconnecting cache servers and the ongoing mobile internet shutdown increased load on broadband, causing slowdowns.
鈥榃e鈥檝e reconnected Google cache server, but it will take time for the internet speed to normalise,鈥� he said adding, 鈥楤roadband uses about 3,500 Gbps bandwidth, while mobile uses about 3,000 Gbps. With mobile data users relying entirely on broadband now, it鈥檚 overwhelming the system,鈥�
The disconnecting of local cache servers has forced increased use of international bandwidth.
Cache servers save internet content locally, speeding up access and saving international bandwidth. Without them, all internet traffic relies on international connections.
Emdadul explained that cache servers must disconnect automatically when internet services are shut down.
The government initially cut both broadband and mobile internet on July 18 amid countrywide protests. People reported losing access around 9:00pm that day.
The government said that the shutdown was due to a fire at a building housing a major data centre. However, the ISPAB denied any such incident.
Emdadul noted that a fire at a nearby building did damage some data cables, affecting 20-30 per cent of the total internet traffic.
