Freelancers of the country are facing huge financial losses due to the frequent disruption of internet service caused by the ongoing unrest over the students’ quota reform movement.
They also fear drastic fall in overseas work order if the internet disruption continues in the country.
Around 1,000 freelances have temporarily shifted to different neighbouring countries, including India and Nepal, to complete work and submit in time, which is forcing them to spend extra money.
Internet outages have become a major setback for the freelancers. Due to the problem, many freelancers have already missed deadline for submitting work and failed to keep commitments they made to the foreign clients.
Sources concerned said currently, freelancers of the country cannot complete their work due to the frequent internet outages which may put a long-term impact on the industry.
“Earlier, we said our industry may face a loss of Tk 1,500 crore in the next three months. The situation is pushing us towards uncertainly. Hence, the amount of loss may double during the period. We cannot recover our image to our existing buyers. We also fear decline in work orders in the days to come,” said Tanjiba Rahman, Chairman of Bangladesh Freelancing Development Society (BFDS).
In view of this situation, some freelancers have taken drastic measures so that they can continue their work without interruption. A few of them have made challenging decision to relocate to neighboring countries where internet connectivity is more stable.
Some leaders and members of BFDS said 550 to 600 Bangladeshi freelancers have gone to Nepal, while 10 to 15 have gone to India, Besides, some have shifted to Dubai and different Schengen countries.
Freelancer Atiqur Rahman sharing his frustration on Facebook said he left Dhaka for Nepal on July 23. He has been staying at a hotel in Kathmandu. He is using 4G data and the hotel’s Wi-Fi to complete his work as per clients’ order. Despite the high cost of living.
Al-Mahmoud, founder and CEO of SpringDaves and Bit Byte Technology, sent several team members to Nepal, which caused them to face huge daily expenses. Similarly, Mainul Arefin, owner and CEO of Mainul Extension, went to Dubai for work to keep his IT firm running.
Former BASIS president AKM Fahim Mashroor told the Bangladesh Post that repeated internet disruption could lead to long-term impact on the industry, such as negative reviews from clients and loss of future work opportunities.
However, State Minister for Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak earlier said cash incentives for freelancers will be given to compensate for their losses.
