Photo : Collected
Bangladesh is on its way to becoming a Smart Bangladesh beyond the digital Bangladesh vision. A third submarine cable is expected to be connected next year.
However, citizens still have to endure very slow internet speeds, despite paying high prices for these services. According to the latest March index of the Speedtest Global Index, Bangladesh ranks 112th out of 148 countries in terms of mobile internet speed. Moreover, the country ranks 108th among 182 countries in broadband internet speed. In both cases, Bangladesh’s internet speed is less than half of the global average.
The global average download speed on mobile internet last March was 52.98 Mbps, while the mobile internet download speed in Bangladesh was only 24.59 Mbps. Qatar topped the list of mobile internet speeds with a download speed of 313.30 Mbps, and the download speed of neighbouring country India was 105.85 Mbps.
On the other hand, the global average download speed on broadband internet was 93.24 Mbps, whereas the download speed in Bangladesh was 44.25 Mbps. Singapore had the top download speed of 284.13 Mbps, while neighbouring India had 61.84 Mbps.
Compared to February, Bangladesh dropped six steps in the mobile internet speed index in March, and broadband internet has taken a step back. Despite these slow speeds, Bangladeshis have to pay high prices for internet services. According to the Global Internet Value Index (IVI) report published by the VPN service platform Surfshark, Bangladeshis spend an average of 6.9 times more money than other countries in the world. Bangladesh ranks 83rd in the world in the list of countries with access to internet services in terms of cost.
Neighbouring India ranks 44th, Nepal 77th, Sri Lanka 96th and Pakistan 102nd. Only 24 percent of the world’s countries spend more money for the Internet than Bangladesh. Internet usage costs are lowest in Israel, Singapore and Denmark.
According to the Digital Quality of Life Index published by Surfshark, Bangladeshis need to work 1 hour 35 minutes and 28 seconds a month to buy mobile internet, which is 6 times more than in Luxembourg. According to the World Population Review, the cost of Internet in different countries in 2024 shows that the cost of bandwidth per Mbps is 92 cents in Bangladesh, 14 cents in Chile, 15 cents in Hong Kong, 10 cents in Thailand, 8 cents in China, 34 cents in Nepal, 14 cents in Poland, 6 cents in Romania, 11 cents in Ukraine, and 12 cents in Russia.
Internet users said that the Internet is being cheated through various packages on mobile phones. It appears that the price of 30 GB internet is Tk 250. The validity period is only seven days. Again, to buy two GB internet for seven days, the cost is Tk 150. Now, if anyone buys two GB internet package, the price seems high; if the person buys 30 GB, he or she can’t even finish that data.
Messenger/Fameema
