The use of technology in my country Bangladesh is truly changing. Even though I have never visited Bangladesh, I have a friend who has visited and he notified me of these dramatic changes. He told me when visited Bangladesh in 2008, he went to an internet café and he learned that they were already using FIOS. Comparing that to New York, FIOS was just introduced to us a couple of years ago. This was a shock for me because I was not aware of this. In addition, currently new cellphone providers are developing. As you all might be unaware of, each individual in Bangladesh has multiple sim cards for their phone. Yes, that’s crazy isn’t it? As a result, cellphones are becoming very ubiquitous. Even children from about ages 10-13 are using cellphones. I received my first cellphone when I was 17 years old.
Internet connection is more prevalent in Dhaka (the capital of Bangladesh) than in any other cities; because places like the village receive shortage of electricity. In an article called “Status of Information Technology in Bangladesh “ by Sustainable development Networking Programme (SDNP), a non-profit organization Internet Service Provider stated that, “There are possibilities of using locally designed long distant Micro Wave (using multiple wireless routers) and these links are now available in Bangladesh at very reasonable cost- for access to remote areas. Straight line of path (60Km range with 3mb access speed), each tower units cost approximately USD 2400.” For an ISP,(Internet Service Provider) the highest peak time charge (Internet usage fees) now is about Taka 1.50 paisa (6 am to 6 PM) and the lowest – off peak time charges is around 00.20 Paisa (2: 00pm to 6:00am) depending on the ISP. They will have a conference in Bangladesh on December 22-24 2012 that will provide an opportunity for computer and information technology professionals, researchers and scientists from all over the world to exchange and share ideas on issues related to information technology. This type of conference will be very beneficial to improving the technology in Bangladesh and it goes to show that Bangladesh is constantly trying to improve the way technology is being using in their country and what better way to do it than, to bring IT specialists and engineers from different countries to share their ideas.
Fahima A. Salina
