Every village in the country will be connected with fiber optical cable and high speed internet connection by 2025.
In this regard the ICT families, including the ISPAB, have to work together to make the Internet a fifth basic service, as well as to make the Internet easier and more accessible.
State Minister for Information and Communication Technology, Zunaid Ahmed Palak said this while speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the newly-elected Executive Committee of the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) at the meeting room of the Information and Communication Technology Department at ICT Tower in the capital on Monday.
Referring to the Internet as the ‘lifeline of the digital economy’ to turn villages into cities, Palak said he wanted to bring high-speed internet to every household in the way that electricity reached households.
A working committee headed by Rezaul Maqsood Jahedi, Director General of the ICT Department, was constituted on Monday to convey this last-line solution through the members of ISPAB. ISPAB president will be the coordinator of this committee. The state minister said, “Internet service providers have played the most important role in providing affordable high speed internet services to all. So, we will work as a family to build an innovative Bangladesh. In a short span of time, under the Public Procurement Rules, 109000 connectivity will be established through the members of ISPAB to deliver fiber optic cable to rural areas by 2024 and 20 lakh by 2025.”
Referring to one of the partners in the implementation of ISPAB Digital Bangladesh, Palak said, “A letter would be sent to the Board of Revenue to make routers, switches import tax free for internet service providers and to include their services in ITES services.”
He also said that the ICT department would do its utmost to set up a ‘Digital Network Lab’ through ISPAB to keep children safe on the Internet and keep the Internet content disciplined.
The state minister assured of all possible assistance in the implementation of the four proposals of the newly-elected committee of the ISPAB.
Conducted by ISPAB Director Zakir Hossain, the press conference was attended by Senior Secretary of ICT department NM Ziaul Alam, Managing Director of Hi-Tech Park Authority Bikarna Kumar Ghosh, President of ISPAB Md Emdadul Haque and Secretary General of ISPAB Nazmul Karim Bhuiyan.