Internet, cable TV providers halt decision to enforce blackout

Internet service and cable TV providers have halted their decision to enforce a daily three-hour outage.

They now await talks with the government over the city corporations’ plan to remove overhead cables in Dhaka.

The leaders of the associations of the service providers announced the decision after a virtual meeting with Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar and State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak on Saturday.

Abdul Hakim, president of Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh or ISPAB, said the minister promised them to discuss the issue with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

He also threatened to enforce the blackout from next Saturday if the government does not meet their demand.

“We will wait for that discussion no matter how long it takes. I’m expecting a solution within a week,” he said.

Jabbar said the government will try to make a decision as soon as possible, but could not give a time when he will be able to talk to Hasina.

The ISPAB and the Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh or COAB on Thursday announced the decision to enforce the blackout from Sunday after the city corporations continued drives to pull down the tangled aerial web of wires crisscrossing the Dhaka skyline.

A disconnect between the service providers and the authorities has been blamed for the electricity, phone, internet and television cables hanging from the power poles, often bunched together.

The operators are supposed to provide internet and cable TV services through underground cables.