Thrust sector, but…
Our government has declared ICT as a thrust sector. But the irony is that the whooping tariff on Internet bandwidth contradicts the government's position. Just as the central bank devaluates our currency periodically to discourage import, so has BTTB set such a high tariff line giving the impression that it also discourages Internet usage. BTTB's current capacity is 24 Gbps but utilization is merely about 20%. Undoubtedly, it is the high tariff rate that is holding back the entrepreneurs in the software industries from leasing bandwidth from BTTB resulting in such a poor utilisation. It is to be noted that foreign investors will not invest in ICT sector if they find cost of supporting infrastructure more than those in the neighbouring countries. We have a talented pool of ICT graduates with about 4,000 fresh students joining it every year. The ICT sector is different from any other typical service sectors. As the industry matures with time, the revenues increase manifold with its maturity as evident from the recent experiences in India, China & Singapore. The sector does not require intense mobilisation of resources, nor does it put heavy pressure on national energy reserves. It requires a steady supply of skilled human resources, which we already have, and uninterrupted Internet connection, which can be considered as the backbone of the total system. Joining submarine cable and then keeping it idle serves the purpose of none. BTTB should take lessons from the recent revolution taking place in cellular companies in Bangladesh. Revenues can be earned from scanty users and a high service charge or from a huge user base and an affordable service charge. Since BTTB is the lone player in this service sector, we hope it will choose the latter voluntarily, unlike in the cellular sector which needed a host of competitors to make that happen.
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