For the first time in the country, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has issued two National Internet Exchange (NIX) licences aiming to reduce interruptions in domestic internet traffic and bring down the use of international bandwidth.
The NIX, a consortium of two or more internet service providers (ISP), will be a passing point to route the local internet traffic within the country.
BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose issued the licences to Bangladesh Internet Exchange Trust (BDIX) and Novocom in a ceremony at the BTRC office yesterday, said the regulator’s Director (media) Mirza Sarwar Alam.
Syed Moinul Haq, managing director of Novocom Limited, and M Aszduzzaman from the BDIX received the licences on behalf of their companies, Sarwar added.
The BTRC had formulated a guideline for the NIX in 2010 but failed to issue any licence as no one showed interest, BTRC sources said. The initiative is part of reducing the cost component of internet service other than the bandwidth, they added.
Novocom MD Moinul said the NIX would reduce the use of international bandwidth and interconnection charges for the ISPs.
Moinul added: “For example, presently when you send an email from Gulshan to Motijheel it passes through the international gateway and again returns to the country’s domain… When we will route this email through the NIX, the email will not need to go via international server, reducing the cost for service providers.”
The NIX would also secure the internet usage and ensure the dedicated internet speed, he said.
Novocom also owns licences for International Gateway (IGW), International Internet gateway (IIG) and International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) link.
Specialists of the ICT industry said the NIX would facilitate local content development, encourage local web hosting and reduce latency in domestic traffic and thereby save international bandwidth and foreign currency.
The latest move came after a previous private initiative to introduce the NIX in the country had failed.
The NIX licence tenure will be for 15 years with an acquisition fee of Tk10,000, while the annual fee for licence renewal is Tk5,000 with a bank guarantee of Tk2.50 lakh.
The successful operators also have to return 20% of their earnings to the government, according to the guideline.
Authorities at both BDIX and Novocom said they would offer the service within eight weeks, even though guideline had given them six months’ time.
Currently, 37 million people are using internet in Bangladesh consuming at least 60 gigabytes of bandwidth from submarine and territorial cable links.
