For a country with a vision to become ‘Digital Bangladesh,’ access to the internet, internet pricing, and internet speed are still major concerns. With one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world, regular Bangladeshi citizens will often find themselves in a bind trying to decide which network operator to pick for the best value, while the government and mobile operators blame each other for regular price hikes.
Bangladesh currently stands at 111th among 142 countries in mobile internet speed while ranking 108th in broadband internet speed. There is much room for improvement when neighboring countries India and Nepal stand at 87th and 89th, respectively, in the internet speed ranking. Broadband internet connection still isn’t available or feasible in most corners of the country, which is why the poor quality of the average mobile internet speed is a major concern.
Despite being a country with the highest population density in the world, the quality of the network infrastructure is abysmal, which was evident when almost half of the country’s broadband users and 20% of the mobile network users were affected and rendered unable to connect to the internet when just one building (Khawaja tower) had an accident which housed several International Internet Gateway (IIG) service providers, data centers and interconnection exchanges (ICXs). Considering the increasing popularity and significance of the global freelancing market and the remote work industry in the post-COVID era, the lack of affordable quality internet for the masses can hamper the potential of employment opportunities for skilled citizens and the possible influx of foreign remittances.
No metric can show how good a country’s internet quality is compared to affordability and accessibility. We have to look at different global data on internet speed and affordability, all while considering other factors impacting internet speed and pricing. A country’s internet speed and pricing depend on a complex juxtaposition of factors like the number and type of internet users, population density, cost of infrastructure for cellular networks, cost of operation, taxation, etc. Lack of infrastructure to accommodate broadband internet can lead to over-reliance on mobile data in developing or underdeveloped countries, often resulting in cheap pricing because of low average wages and competition among providers in a saturated market.
On the contrary, countries with wealthier economies and better infrastructure can often have higher pricing models because of the higher financial capabilities of citizens and the increased cost of owning/running network infrastructure. Countries with excellent infrastructure(4G/5G), on the other hand, tend to have very cheap data pricing models while offering unlimited or high volume of data packages to consumers. A good example is Israel, where good government policy and regulations disrupted the monopoly of cellular companies in favor of consumers. The adoption of MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), which allows new and smaller companies to rent/access existing infrastructure of larger companies to operate, ensured a lower barrier of entry in the market and higher competition, which ultimately led to Israel being able to offer the most affordable internet (0.04$ per 1GB) in the world to its citizens. Excellent network infrastructure also landed Italy and San Marino in second and third places in terms of offering the most affordable internet access to its citizens. However, internet pricing is not everything; the quality of internet access also depends on internet speed.
Bangladesh does seem to have ‘cheap’ internet compared to the global average of 0.23$ per 1 GB. But the abysmal internet speed and higher prices for better-quality data plans mean Bangladeshis are getting less value for the amount they are paying compared to the rest of the world.
According to the Global Internet Value Index (IVi) released by Surf Shark, Bangladesh ranks 83rd in the world. This metric divides the internet speed by affordability to understand whether people are paying a fair price for the internet they are getting. According to this metric, Bangladeshi citizens are grossly overpaying for the internet they are getting, more than 86% of the world, to be exact. Poor performance on this index (0.0105) can mostly be attributed to the internet’s significantly lower speed/quality in Bangladesh despite having comparatively cheap pricing compared to the global average. Israel has the best IVi score at 0.6630. This means Bangladeshis are overpaying by more than 63 times for quality internet compared to Israel.
This is even more significant when we consider that Bangladesh is 139th in the GDP per capita ranking. To put things into perspective, Israel and Italy have 54,600$ and 37,146$ GDP per capita, respectively, compared to 2,621$ in Bangladesh. This is why Bangladeshis have to spend a higher percentage of their income on internet connectivity despite the seemingly lower price of internet packages. The disparity is striking when we consider that Bangladesh has one of the worst GINI coefficients in the world, which measures income inequality. According to the World Inequality Report 2022, the top 1% of Bangladesh’s population holds 16.3% of total national income, while the bottom half has only 17.1%. This means for almost 50% of the population, regular access to the internet is still a challenge.
This is evident in Bangladesh’s poor Internet Penetration rate (38.9%) compared to the global average (66.2%). In most developed countries, the penetration rate is above 80-90%. There is also a massive disparity across the genders in terms of mobile ownership and access to the internet. Socio-economic and cultural barriers serve to increase the gender digital divide, which is why women in Bangladesh have an even lower internet penetration rate compared to the male population. Only a little more than 50% of Bangladeshi women own mobile phones, while the mobile ownership rate is close to 90% among men.
Bangladesh also underperforms in other global standards for assessing internet quality and pricing like Speed (Ookla’s speed test global index), Latency, QoS (Quality of Service), Percentage of Income spent on the internet, Inclusive Internet Index by Meta, Affordability Drivers Index (ADI) released by A4AI (Alliance For Affordable Internet) among others. Affordability Drivers Index (ADi) is a metric for summarising the state of internet affordability across 72 low and middle-income countries. Bangladesh ranks 46th in this index, while neighbors India and Nepal are 10th and 37th, respectively. This metric shows that in terms of network infrastructure, affordability, and access to the Internet, Bangladesh is still poor, even among low/middle-income nations. According to Ookla’s speed test index, Bangladesh fares poorly compared to other Asian nations in terms of internet quality, as shown in this chart.
Mobile internet operators have often leveled accusations of unreasonably high taxation rates and cost of spectrum auctions against the government, citing these reasons as the main causes for poor internet quality and pricing. These accusations are not entirely without ground as, according to GSMA’s report on Bangladesh, mobile operators and consumers pay much higher taxes than other Asian countries.
The final auction prices for the 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz connections in 2018 were the highest in the world, and as a result, more than 50% of the spectrum on offer remained unsold.
Some experts also blame the existence of some ‘Intermediary Companies’ in the internet bandwidth market because of faulty government policies for the increased price of internet and poor internet quality.
As Bangladesh strives to become ‘Digital’ and ‘Cashless,’ affordable internet access to every citizen takes priority. With increasing reliance on the internet and the worldwide boom of AI-based services, burdening root-level internet consumers and mobile operators with unusually high taxes and charges seems counterproductive. There is also a lot of room for improvement in the network infrastructure side of things as a big percentage of the population living outside big cities does not yet have broadband or reliable mobile internet access. Policy changes should be made to incentivize mobile network operators to invest more in network infrastructure to improve the internet penetration rate and quality.
Sharing network infrastructure can help reduce the cost of operation while increasing healthy competition among network operators, as seen in the case of Israel. The government should consider introducing Active Sharing of Network Infrastructure in upcoming policy discussions/regulations to improve the internet penetration rate and potentially gain more revenue in millions of dollars.
Bangladesh has been making steady progress in terms of internet quality and pricing in the last decade, but the progress has not been fast enough due to a lack of proper planning and foresight, bureaucracy, and corruption. If Bangladesh hopes to become a regional frontrunner in the world of technology, now is the time to start working on a long-term roadmap, including revised spectrum costs and more balanced taxation for operators and consumers.
Azaher Uddin Anik is a CS graduate with research interests in Cybercrime and HCI. He completed his studies at CSE, DU. You can contact him here: [email protected]
