Telecom Reporters Network of Bangladesh (TRNB) asked me to explain them the problems of 3G in Bangladesh. This is what I presented. But we discussed a lot beyond the slides. It’s always great to talk to the journalists.

1. 3G in Bangladesh:
Points to ponder
Abu Saeed Khan
askhan@ieee.org
@ TRNB Workshop
December 29, 2012

2. The dark age

3. “Main telephone” denies mobile
YEARBOOK OF STATISTICS
Telecommunication Services
Chronological Time Series 1996-2005
July 2007

4. A miracle had happened in 1997
Oslo 2006

5. Ubiquitous Universal Access
Effective Regulation Operator1
•License Universal Service
•Spectrum Operator2 •Ubiquitous voice/data
•Interconnection •Ubiquitous broadband
•Internet Bandwidth Operatorn
1997 →
2015 →

6. Three percent of family income:
Entry point for broadband adoption

7. Affordability levels

8. Policy uncertainty
45.40%
40.10% 40.10%
32.90%
29.10% 29.50%
20.90%
India Thailand Philippines China Cambodia Pakistan Bangladesh
Source: A Future Within Reach 2008

9. Networked Readiness Index 2012
Rank 113 (Out of 142); Score 3.2 (1-7)
The Global Information Technology Report 2012, WEF

10. Internet and broadband penetration
in the Eurasian region, 2010

11. Three percent of family income:
Entry point for broadband adoption

12. Affordability levels

13. 1 EB = 250 million DVDs
5 EB = A transcript of all words ever spoken

14. “The Internet is not a humanitarian project, it’s a business”
- Grant van Rooyen, SVP, Level 3 Communications

15. “Despite falling 22% compounded annually between Q2 2007 and Q2 2012, the
median price of a GigE port in Hong Kong has remained 2.7 to 5.1 times the price of a
GigE port in London over the past five years.” (August 2, 2012).

16. High, Low, and Median Hong Kong GigE IP Transit
Prices by Carrier
H
M
L
Notes: Shaded area represents price range between low and high price by individual carrier; line
shows median. Data shown are monthly price per Mbps, excluding installation and local access fees.
Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) = 1,000 Mbps. Source: TeleGeography.

17. The Great Asian Bandwidth Divide
Bangladesh USD 100 (mean)

18. Fiber didn’t exist when mobile came

19. >US$ 400 million invested

21. Outline of Infra-sharing Guideline
• Forbids sharing transmission capacity with
anyone but NTTN.
• Forces to transfer all transmission customers
to the NTTN operators.
• Prohibits one mobile operator from leasing
transmission capacity to another mobile
operator unless either of the NTTN declines.

22. Objectives of the Guideline
2008
2011

23. Unlawful: Upsets the market
• The Foreign Private Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act, 1980
•Section 29(d) of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulating Act, 2001

24. Screenshot on December 21, 2012

26. Impact analyses
• Airtel and Robi.
– CAPEX and NRO.
• Grameenphone, Banglalink and CityCell
– Investment (>US$ 400 million), clientele.
• The entire mobile sector
– Reliability of network under threat.
• Existing clients
– Assignment of contract, sensitive customers
(Banks, MNCs and Government).
It makes 3G expensive

27. Skype is the limit
• ILD traffic grew 4% in
2011, to 438 billion
minutes.
• International Skype-to-
Skype calls (including video
calls) grew 48 % in 2011, to
145 billion minutes.
• Skype added 47 billion
minutes of international
traffic in 2011 — more than
twice as much as all the
telephone companies in
“If all of Skype’s on-net traffic had been routed via phoneworld, combined.
the companies, global cross-
border telephone traffic would have grown 13 percent in 2011, remaining in line
with historical growth rates.”
TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert

28. Wi-Fi delivers over 75% of all
UK Smartphone Data: Nielsen study
• People in UK with Android smartphones transfer 78%
of their internet content using WiFi and just 22% over a
mobile connection.
• The amount of mobile data ‘offloading’ - either via
commercial WiFi hotspots or home and business
networks - starts to increase in the evening from 5pm
and reaches a peak between 11pm and midnight, when
90% of data transferred during that hour is via WiFi.
• Peaks in 3G data usage tended to be just before the
working day started, at lunchtime and during the early
evening commute; times when users are unlikely to be
able to rely on a WiFi connection.

29. “This is a good description, wide area networks are
less demanded by data users, compared to voice/sms
users that always are sensitive to coverage. “
Martin Bäckström
Technology Advisor, PLDT/Smart

31. Section 21A. Social Obligation Fund.
(1) The Commission will create a fund to be known as the Social Obligation Fund for
extending telecommunication facility in the areas deprived of such facility.
(2) Money received from the following sources shall be credited to the Social Obligation Fund,
namely:-
(a) grants made by the Government;
(b) grants made by any other local or foreign or international organization;
(c) subscription received from telecommunication and radio communication
operators for this purpose; and
(d) any contribution received from any other legal source.
(3) Money of the Social Obligation Fund shall have to be kept deposited in any scheduled
bank to be determined by the Commission.
(4) The maintenance of accounts and operation of the Social Obligation Fund, its
administration, procedure for withdrawal of money of the said Fund and the rate of
subscription for the Fund to be realized from the licensed operators, shall be prescribed
by rules.

32. Section 21A. Social Obligation Fund.
(1) The Commission will create a fund to be known as the Social Obligation Fund for
extending telecommunication facility in the areas deprived of such facility.
(2) Money received from the following sources shall be credited to the Social Obligation Fund,
namely:-
(a) grants made by the Government;
(b) grants made by any other local or foreign or international organization;
(c) subscription received from telecommunication and radio communication
operators for this purpose; and
(d) any contribution received from any other legal source.
(3) Money of the Social Obligation Fund shall have to be kept deposited in any scheduled
bank to be determined by the Commission.
(4) The maintenance of accounts and operation of the Social Obligation Fund, its
administration, procedure for withdrawal of money of the said Fund and the rate of
subscription for the Fund to be realized from the licensed operators, shall be prescribed
by rules.

33. Section 98. Power to make rules.
• For carrying out the purposes of this Act, the Government
may, by notification in the official Gazette, make rules
consistent with the provisions of this Act.

34. Section 98. Power to make rules.
• For carrying out the purposes of this Act, the Government
may, by notification in the official Gazette, make rules
consistent with the provisions of this Act.
2G License Renewal

35. Where is the rule?

36. A small gift for everyone
• Download it FREE!
http://futureoftheinternet.org/

37. Thanks for your attention
Abu Saeed Khan
askhan@ieee.org
@ TRNB Workshop
December 29, 2012