Faiz Ahmad Tayeb, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser on Posts, Telecommunications and ICT, announced that internet prices in Bangladesh will be reduced in three separate tiers. He has urged private mobile operators in the country to follow suit and lower their internet charges.
He shared this information via a Facebook post, stating that the authority at Fiber@Home has confirmed the decision. According to him, they will reduce prices by 10% at the International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) level, 10% at the International Internet Gateway (IIG) level, and 15% at the National Transmission (NTTN) level.
In his post, Faiz noted that the ISP license-holding companies earlier had pledged to provide 10 Mbps internet for BDT 500. Even before that, the Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited had reduced prices by 10% for all IIG and ISP clients and by an additional 10% for wholesale customers—totalling a 20% price cut at the international gateway level. Altogether, the internet pricing structure is being revised through multiple layers of licensing, spanning three to four steps.
Following these developments, Faiz Ahmad called on the country’s three private mobile operators to reduce their prices as well. “Only the private mobile operators are yet to announce any price reduction,” he wrote.
He added that the government has already provided them with access to DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) and dark fiber services. Under such circumstances, there is no reasonable justification for the mobile operators not to reduce internet prices.
He further stated that the government has given policy support to these mobile operators and has already reduced wholesale internet prices at both international and national levels through public-private initiatives. “Now it’s their turn to join the national initiative,” he added.
He also expressed hope that the move to reduce mobile internet prices would help ease the ongoing inflation, even if slightly.
Faiz Ahmad mentioned that state-owned mobile operator Teletalk has already announced a 10% discount on internet prices starting from Eid-ul-Fitr.
The government, he said, expects the three private mobile companies to announce logical price reductions soon. Two kinds of reductions are expected: A rollback of the price increase imposed in March due to SRO (Statutory Regulatory Order) adjustments, which has since been nullified by the government, and a proportionate reduction in consumer-level internet prices, in line with wholesale rate cuts at the ITC, IIG, and national transmission levels.
He said there are widespread concerns about the quality of mobile internet in Bangladesh, with prices being disproportionately high compared to the service quality. “The government remains committed to taking rational steps in the public interest.”