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He says the government will break the policy of fibre hoarding
Published : 09 Mar 2025, 11:48 PM
Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, special assistant to the chief advisor, has promised to provide mobile operators with access to “dark fibre”.
He said, "We will grant concessions to mobile operators regarding the NTTN issue. The country's top two NTTN operators have blocked the data market by hoarding fibre as if it were a treasure. The government will put an end to this policy.
"We want NTTNs to operate by renting dark fibre rather than selling bandwidth.
“It is the government’s political commitment to make a policy for maximum utilisation of the nation's unused fibre cables.”
Faiz made these remarks in a speech at a discussion programme titled “What to do to get high-speed, quality and affordable internet at the marginal stage” at the National Press Club.
Ishraque Hossain, BNP's special assistant on the international relations committee, expressed support for the government's work.
The programme, organised by the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers’ Association, was attended by Bangladesh’s top three mobile operators, two leading Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network, or NTTN, companies, and key leaders from the ISP sector.
Former and current leaders of BASIS, Bangladesh’s top organisation for IT businesses, were also present.
Representatives from mobile tower companies, freelancers, and the International Internet Gateway , or IIG, sector, along with nearly all relevant stakeholders, participated in the event.
Fibre optic cables are being used as a means of bandwidth transport in mobile and internet services. Bangladesh’s mobile operators and NTTN operators have been at odds over this for a long time.
Before 2009, mobile operators installed their own fibre optic cables, while some relied on railway fibre optic lines.
The Awami League government introduced NTTN licences for fibre optic installation, restricting the right to lay fibre cables to these licensees.
Since then, NTTN companies have controlled the fibre network.
Currently, there are three government-owned and three private NTTN companies.
The market is largely dominated by private firms Fiber at Home and Summit Communications.
There are allegations the Awami League government has “unethically” given these two companies additional opportunities, giving them projects worth millions of taka. The companies have been denying those allegations.
Dark fibre refers to unused fibre and is a common term in the NTTN and network connectivity business.
NTTN companies operate in two ways: they can charge based on the bandwidth transmitted through their installed fibre, or they can lease unused dark fibre at a fixed price, allowing companies to establish end-to-end connectivity and manage data transport as needed.
Mobile operators and ISPs have been blaming NTTN for service errors and high prices.
Faiz said, “A model for this could be BCC’s fibre with Summit and Fiber at Home, of which only two cables are used. We will take the initiative to lease the rest and offer them to others.
"A maximum of 120 million railway fibre cores are in use, leaving 120 million to 360 million unused. We will take the initiative to utilise these."
“An attempt will be made to create a fibre bank in collaboration with four government agencies, using the Power Grid of Bangladesh’s unused fibre, which will operate on a rental basis, allowing access to those who need it."
Addressing the two NTTN companies, he said: “Abandon your monopoly or duopolistic approach. Expand your fibre network and grow your business.”
"Of the 500,000 km of fibre cable in the country, only 5,000 to 10,000 km are underground—this is shameful."
"This fibre is not telco-grade, and it cannot support 5G. A policy must be established to expand telco-grade fibre.”
Addressing the NTTN business model, he said: "Someone said they were not allowed to install DWDM (a bandwidth extension device) on their fibre. These policies will be reviewed very soon.
“NTTN should operate based on connections, not capacity. We want to focus on renting dark fibre instead of selling bandwidth.
“The per capita internet usage rate in India is 70 times higher than Bangladesh. We need to identify who’s blocking the internet market.
“The fibres of BGCB, BTCL, Railways or BCC are our national assets, and they are underutilised. We will take a policy to use them to the maximum at any cost.”
"We will ensure that no one is forced out of business.
“This transition will happen quickly, and we will introduce policies, requiring local investors to meet certain licence obligations alongside their investments.”
He mentioned IIG, ITC, and submarine cable companies will also be brought under surveillance, saying: “No one can do business and call it service. This is the foundation of our digital economy.”
Commenting that Bangladesh's internet sovereignty is being undermined by moving the servers from Dhaka to India, Faiz said: “We have brought blocking on ITC. We will go to SIMU 6 (third submarine cable) very soon and provide new facilities for hyperscale traders."
