THE admission of the state minister for telecommunication and information technology that telecom services have failed to achieve global standards came quite late in the day, as consumers have been complaining for a long time about the poor network, call drop, slow internet speed and the quality of the overall services of the country鈥檚 mobile operators. The state minister, who has been in office for three consecutive terms, made the remark at a meeting on June 30 and assured that they would emphasise financial and technical audits of the sector to ensure quality service. Referring to tests conducted by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulation Commission, which substantiated consumer grievances, the state minister added that they will enforce financial penalties for mobile operators with poor performances. In May, at a BTRC public hearing, mobile and internet subscribers in Bangladesh raised specific concerns, including poor network coverage, slow internet speeds, and 鈥榰njust鈥� balance deductions from local carriers. In 2019, the BTRC received 14,037 consumer complaints regarding mobile operators鈥� services. The state minister鈥檚 words, therefore, rang hollow as he admitted a problem that has already been reported but remained unaddressed.
Mobile network providers have expanded their reach and improved their technological infrastructure, but sadly, they have failed to maintain mobile internet speed. In the Digital Quality of Life Index 2023, the country ranked 82nd out of 121 nations, which was 73 per cent slower than India. In Ookla鈥檚 Speedtest Global Index for April, Bangladesh held 110th position in terms of mobile internet speed, which is a slight improvement from the previous report but not promising considering the ruling party鈥檚 pledge to build a 鈥楧igital Bangladesh鈥�. The median fixed broadband download speed for April was 46.52 Mbps, an increase from the previous report but still far from global median internet speeds. The telecommunications authority mentioned uneven distribution and increasing building density as the reasons behind the poor internet speed and assured that they would work with city development authorities to include the issue of digital connectivity as a separate section in the building code to ensure better networks in urban areas. Information and technology experts, however, termed existing telecom policies dysfunctional because only 20 per cent of mobile towers are plugged with optical fibre cable in this 184 million-plus subscribers鈥� market. The fact that Bangladesh is still struggling to maintain the global average download speed makes it fairly obvious that monitoring without a scientifically informed policy and properly installed and maintained network infrastructure will not guarantee quality telecom service.
The ministry of telecommunications and information technology, and the government for that matter, have to do much more than make rhetorical claims about building a 鈥楧igital Bangladesh鈥�. The government and the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission must develop a mechanism to systematically monitor the quality of service in the sector and attend to customers鈥� grievances. The authorities must ensure quality network and internet services, mere admission of a widely known problem is not enough.