The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) rejected the licence application of 301 internet service providers (ISPs) as there was no space for new entrants in an already crowded market for broadband internet providers.
More than half of these applications are from Dhaka and adjacent areas, according to a notification issued by the country's telecom regulator.
In a circular issued recently, the BTRC said it cannot provide license to these applications as per the new ISP guidelines to avoid oversaturation in a particular area.
Secretary General of Internet Service Providers' Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) Nazmul Karim Bhuiyan said there are 2,700 ISPs working in the country to provide internet service.
ISPs made a demand to give licences to applicants who seek licences to provide the services to subscribers of locations where internet services have not reached yet, such as hilly areas and remote islands.
Around 2,000 companies are currently listed in the ISPAB database out of around 2,700.
However, a BTRC official said the decision not to provide a license is not permanent.
The BTRC recently scrapped licences of 316 ISPs as the ISPs failed to respond to the queries by the telecom regulator regarding their licence conversion.
The commission has directed all international internet gateway (IGW) operators not to provide bandwidth to these ISPs.
According to the Regulatory and Licensing Guideline for ISP in Bangladesh, the ISPs must renew their licences every five years and the licensee has to obtain an approval of tariffs before rolling out a service.
Late last year, the regulator fixed the area of work for its licensees to bring order in the internet service business.
An amendment to the ISP guidelines found that the existing internet service provider (ISP) licensed companies have Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN), International Internet Gateway (IIG), International Gateway (IGW), Interconnection Exchange (ICX), submarine cable and International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) licenses.
But if the ISP licensed companies want to continue their business, they have to choose either ISP or the rest of the licenses.
Under the amendment, license holders willing to continue the ISP business, have to hand over NTTN, IIG, IGW, ICX, submarine cable and ITC licenses to the BTRC.
If they want to continue the business of NTTN, IIG, IGW, ICX, submarine cable and ITC, they have to hand over the IPS license.
However, this condition did not apply to government institutions under this sector.
