The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has cut its claim for revenue share from international internet gateway (IIG) operators to Tk9.48 crore from an initial Tk62.56 crore after a technical review sharply changed how unsold bandwidth is treated.
Under the final decision, BTRC is not seeking revenue share on the first 40 per cent of IIG operators’ excess bandwidth, up from the initial level of 10 per cent.
According to regulatory documents seen by TIMES, BTRC’s first assessment in 2023 put its receivable at Tk62.56 crore.
A subsequent internal reassessment cut the figure to Tk6.35 crore.
The regulator has now fixed the final amount at Tk9.48 crore after an expert committee reviewed the methodology behind both calculations.
The dispute centres on the gap between the bandwidth IIG operators buy from upstream international providers and the amount they report selling downstream.
BTRC’s initial calculation largely treated that gap as revenue-generating bandwidth subject to the regulator’s 10 per cent revenue share, with only a limited allowance for unsold capacity.
IIG operators and the International Internet Gateway Association of Bangladesh (IIGAB) challenged that approach, arguing that part of the gap reflected cache servers, system losses, emergency requirements, excess purchases and fluctuations in demand.
BTRC’s Engineering and Operations Division then reassessed the data by matching IIG upstream purchases with bandwidth bought by ISPs from IIGs.
That exercise reduced the estimated dues to Tk6.35 crore.
The huge difference between the Tk62.56 crore and Tk6.35 crore calculations led BTRC to form another technical committee in May 2025 with representatives from the regulator, the Posts and Telecommunications Division, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and Jahangirnagar University.
The committee reviewed IIG and ISP data, including records from BTRC’s Data Information System, and submitted its report on 21 July this year.
It said 10-29 per cent excess bandwidth could reasonably be required for technical and operational purposes, while 30-39 per cent could remain unsold because of lower demand from ISPs and mobile network operators.
But it concluded that more than 40 per cent of excess bandwidth could not reasonably be justified.
BTRC accepted that finding and decided to recover revenue only from the 40 per cent-and-above category.
The final assessment covered 34 IIG operators and identified 4,631,038 Mbps of bandwidth in that category.
Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited now faces the highest assessed revenue-share amount due, at Tk2.65 crore, followed by I-TEL Limited at Tk2.22 crore, Earth Telecommunication at Tk96.26 lakh and Velocity Networks Limited at Tk94.66 lakh.
The committee also identified a regulatory gap.
BTRC’s existing IIG licensing policy does not clearly specify how much difference between upstream bandwidth purchases and downstream sales is permissible.
The technical committee recommended clearer rules on allowable bandwidth gaps and revenue-sharing obligations to prevent similar disputes.
Industry representatives, however, say even the final threshold may not fully address the industry’s operational realities.
ISP Association of Bangladesh President Aminul Hakim, also a former president of IIGAB, said operators often have to buy international capacity in fixed blocks, leaving part of it unused when demand does not immediately absorb the capacity.
Operators also need excess bandwidth for content delivery network nodes for local cache services such as Facebook and YouTube.
Such capacity supports customer service but is not necessarily sold directly to customers.
Aminul Hakim said a blanket 40 per cent threshold therefore might not capture the circumstances of individual operators.
He called on BTRC to examine firm-level data and develop monitoring systems capable of distinguishing technically necessary unsold capacity from sales that may have gone unreported.
