ICT Sector Performance Review for Bangladesh

Abstract

Since emerging as an independent country in 1971, Bangladesh has achieved some notable development amid major socio-economic challenges. The rapid growth of the telecommunication industry has been a key success story. With some of the world’s lowest tariffs, there are around 70 million active access paths of telecommunications here (with mobile SIM and PSTN penetrating of 43% and 1% of the population respectively). An estimated 10 million internet users access the cyberspace primarily through mobile internet.The TRE Survey (or the Telecom Regulatory Environment survey) conducted in Feb-Mar 2011 asked senior stakeholders to evaluate the effectiveness of the regulatory and policy environment in three telecom subsectors (fixed, mobile and broadband) along seven dimensions: market entry, access to scarce resources, interconnection, tariff regulation, anti-competitive practices, universal service obligation (USO), and quality of service (QoS) for the last 2 years (January 2009- January 2011).