Internet usage
Living in a third world country like Bangladesh, with half its population dragging their lives below poverty line, the ambition for competing with the hi-tech world is lofty, if not impossible. With a trifling number of people, one percent of the total population, using Internet, the status of the country regarding the usage of Internet is anybody's guess.
Elaborated as interconnected networks, Internet enables us to do online business, to communicate fast, to access and gather a sea of information and what not. In a nutshell, it is a virtual world with so many facilities embedded in it. It's getting popularity not because of the fact that it does amazing things but because it reaches us to the superhighway of information technology, enabling the whole world to get connected.
However, the main objective of my writing this letter is not to illustrate the importance of Internet but to thank the government and the few NGOs for their commendable initiatives taken for the sake of reducing the cost of using Internet. Recently, Bangladesh Tele-communications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has slashed the domestic bandwidth charge by 60 percent to reach the Internet facilities to the rural people who have been on the wrong side of the digital divide. The latest cut in charges has taken effect from December 1 with the intention of helping upgrade the living standards in the countryside by providing easy access to Internet. In line with the govt. efforts, some NGOs, e.g. BRAC, have taken long term plans to provide people living in different parts of the country with easy and affordable Internet connection.
The mobile operators, PSTN operators and ISP, have been instructed to reschedule their charges in line with the reduced charges. It is expected that the use of Internet and broadband will see a jump nationwide after all the moves get effect.
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