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Last updated: 11 Apr : 00:40 Details |
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Welcome to the offcial website of the Internet Service Providers Association Bangladesh
In 1998 the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh was organized for the general purpose of improving business conditions of Internet Service Providers operating in Bangladesh by such activities as serving the common business interest of its Members by promoting higher business standards; disseminating technical, legal and other information to its members; operating as a trade association to benefit the community of Internet Service Providers in the Bangladesh and their customers; working for the enactment of laws and rules advancing the common business interests of its Members; and performing such other function as are customary among trade associations.
A short history of the Bangladesh ISP Industry
In the early nineties, Bangladesh had access to email via dialup to Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) of a few local providers. The combined Internet users of all the email-only service providers was not more then 500. Users were charged by the kilobyte, and mail was transferred from the BBS service providers to the rest of the world by International dialup using UUCP.
In June 1996, the Government allowed VSAT's to be operated in the Private Sector, allbeit to be provided solely by the Government owned Telephone Operator, BTTB. Only a handful of ISPs were connected within the first year. However, more liberal Government policies followed in the subsequent years which led to a rapid expansion of this industry, eventually resulting in over 180 registered ISP's by 2005. ISPs are currently regulated by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission through the Bangladesh Telecommunications Act. |
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Two workers at the Telenor-owned mobile phone company in Bangladesh, GrameenPhone, were killed on the job last month, Telenor confirmed Tuesday. The deaths are the latest in a series of fatal accidents at Telenor's operations abroad.
Working conditions at GrameenPhone have been called into question of late.
Newspaper Dagens Nringsliv reported that two workers were mounting a billboard promoting GrameenPhone when they lost their footing and fell from a height of 10 meters.
A Telenor official wasn't aware of the two deaths last month when first contacted by the newspaper, but later confirmed them.
That brings to seven the number of workers tied to Telenor who have lost their lives while carrying out their jobs. The Norwegian company has been fending off reports the past few weeks of bad working conditions at its overseas subsidiaries and suppliers.
"When management in Telenor doesn't even have an overview of how many have died, it's a good and tragic example of how scandalously poor Telenor's control has been," Alexander Cappelen, a professor at the Center for Ethics at Norwegian business school NHH (Norges Handelshyskole), told Dagens Nringsliv.
Hans Mathias Thjme of another business school, BI, had a different opinion. "Telenor... operates in 12 countries and employs around 100,000 persons in Bangladesh," he wrote in newspaper Aftenposten on Tuesday. "They buy products and services all over the world, so to demand that they have an overview over absolutely everything is completely unreasonable."
www.aftenposten.no/english/business/article2448006.ece
Telenor's labour scandal deepens
Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor had its reputation further tarnished over the weekend after reports emerged of more deaths of workers tied to Telenor's overseas subsidiaries.
Telenor chief executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas faced more bad news over the weekend.
Telenor, Peace Prize winner caught in labour scandal - 14.05.2008
The first reports were linked to Telenor's operations in Bangladesh, where workers are forced to put up with conditions at Telenor suppliers that would never be condoned in Norway. Telenor has claimed that it wasn't aware that children were part of the workforce at a supplier to its GrameenPhone unit there, nor that workers operated in unsafe conditions. One young man was killed when he fell into a vat of acid.
Telenor itself unveiled two more workers' deaths last week, at operations in Bangladesh and Hungary. Among them was a male worker at Telenor's Pannon operation in Hungary, who died in a fall on the construction site of Telenor's new headquarters for Pannon.
In other deaths, a 10-year-old girl was electrocuted on GrameenPhone property in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Newspaper Dagens Nringsliv also revealed two more deaths of GrameenPhone workers in Bangladesh: One died from an electric shock suffered on the job, while another fell from a mobile phone tower he was working on.
Telenor has said it is investigating all the cases, and promises that working conditions for its overseas employees will be improved. So far, however, the fatal accidents haven't taken a toll on Telenor's management, and chief executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas kept his job after an emergency board meeting last week.
Telenor is majority-owned by the state, prompting opposition politicians to demand that the government controlling Telenor's board take punitive action against Telenor's management. Many feel the Telenor labour scandal is hurting Norway's reputation overseas.
Aftenposten English Web Desk
www.aftenposten.no/english/business/article2445436.ece?service=print
Posted by azhar on Monday 23 June 2008 - 11:28:02
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Read/Post Comment: 55
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Damaged cable hits Internet
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Gulf Times
Staff Reporter
INTERNET traffic was affected yesterday as a fallout of damage to two submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean Sea, causing disruption of services across the Middle East and Asia.
Inevitably, when there is damage to a major international cable system, it affects the international network that relies on it, Qtel Group Communications executive director Adel al-Mutawa said in a statement.
Internet users faced a slowdown in the service with many websites remaining either totally inaccessible or taking a considerably long time to download.
Gulf Times received several calls from Internet users yesterday, including Qtels ADSL customers, who complained about the service slowdown.
Qtel stated that international voice calls were unaffected across Qatar. The newly-launched Blackberry Internet service, on which so many business users rely, was also unaffected.
Fortunately, Qatar has a large number of alternative routes and therefore our loss of capacity has been kept below 40%, the official clarified while attributing it to Qtels continuing commitment to quality of service.
Al-Mutawa said that Qtel is working hard to find alternative routes to improve matters during the period in which services are affected.
Some corporate users are directly affected as they had lease lines that were specifically reliant on the system. Where possible we are making alternative arrangements for them, he said.
Qtel is also providing some additional bandwidth to other GCC operators who have been severely affected by the disruption.
Flag Telecom Group and SEA-ME-WE 4 (the cable operators responsible for the affected system) report that the problem will be rectified in 12 to 15 days, Qtel added.
The cables cut are called the Flag and SEA-ME-WE 4 (connecting Italy and Egypt) and link the Western world to the East.
Reportedly a ship cut the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable at 8.3km from the Italian cost at 7.29am (Doha time) and the Flag cable was cut at 10.49am (Doha time)
Damage to undersea cables is not an abnormal situation, it has happened numerous times in the past, according to Qtel.
An Internet user said he could not open his mailbox since yesterday morning.
Pictures took a long time to download and it was really painful waiting. A popular search engine remained inaccessible throughout the day, he said.
Since Internet is now the nerve centre of businesses, the slowdown has affected many establishments in Qatar.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Emirati providers Etisalat and Du said international telephone services were affected and that they were working to restore services as quickly as possible, the United Arab Emirates WAM news agency reported.
A Reuters report earlier said Internet services in Egypt had faced a 70% disruption.
Similar reports had come from India also where a 50% to 60% cut in bandwidth was experienced because of the breakdown in the international undersea cable network.
More news on Damaged Cable:
www.xpress4me.com/news/uae/national/20005528.html
www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=21359
www.ibtimes.com/articles/20080131/internet-egypt-india-submarine-cable-mediterranean-flag.htm
Posted by azhar on Friday 01 February 2008 - 02:50:46
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Read/Post Comment: 42
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Damaged cable hits Internet
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Gulf Times
Staff Reporter
INTERNET traffic was affected yesterday as a fallout of damage to two submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean Sea, causing disruption of services across the Middle East and Asia.
Inevitably, when there is damage to a major international cable system, it affects the international network that relies on it, Qtel Group Communications executive director Adel al-Mutawa said in a statement.
Internet users faced a slowdown in the service with many websites remaining either totally inaccessible or taking a considerably long time to download.
Gulf Times received several calls from Internet users yesterday, including Qtels ADSL customers, who complained about the service slowdown.
Qtel stated that international voice calls were unaffected across Qatar. The newly-launched Blackberry Internet service, on which so many business users rely, was also unaffected.
Fortunately, Qatar has a large number of alternative routes and therefore our loss of capacity has been kept below 40%, the official clarified while attributing it to Qtels continuing commitment to quality of service.
Al-Mutawa said that Qtel is working hard to find alternative routes to improve matters during the period in which services are affected.
Some corporate users are directly affected as they had lease lines that were specifically reliant on the system. Where possible we are making alternative arrangements for them, he said.
Qtel is also providing some additional bandwidth to other GCC operators who have been severely affected by the disruption.
Flag Telecom Group and SEA-ME-WE 4 (the cable operators responsible for the affected system) report that the problem will be rectified in 12 to 15 days, Qtel added.
The cables cut are called the Flag and SEA-ME-WE 4 (connecting Italy and Egypt) and link the Western world to the East.
Reportedly a ship cut the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable at 8.3km from the Italian cost at 7.29am (Doha time) and the Flag cable was cut at 10.49am (Doha time)
Damage to undersea cables is not an abnormal situation, it has happened numerous times in the past, according to Qtel.
An Internet user said he could not open his mailbox since yesterday morning.
Pictures took a long time to download and it was really painful waiting. A popular search engine remained inaccessible throughout the day, he said.
Since Internet is now the nerve centre of businesses, the slowdown has affected many establishments in Qatar.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Emirati providers Etisalat and Du said international telephone services were affected and that they were working to restore services as quickly as possible, the United Arab Emirates WAM news agency reported.
A Reuters report earlier said Internet services in Egypt had faced a 70% disruption.
Similar reports had come from India also where a 50% to 60% cut in bandwidth was experienced because of the breakdown in the international undersea cable network.
More news on Damaged Cable:
www.xpress4me.com/news/uae/national/20005528.html
www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=21359
www.ibtimes.com/articles/20080131/internet-egypt-india-submarine-cable-mediterranean-flag.htm
Posted by azhar on Friday 01 February 2008 - 02:49:47
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Read/Post Comment: 48
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SANOG XI starts at Pac Pacific Sonargaon Hotel
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ISP Association of Bangladesh with the support of ICT Business Promotion Council is organizing SANOG XI (South Asian Network Operators Group) consisting of, training programs, tutorial sessions and a conference from the 10th of January 2008 till the 18th of January 2008 at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel, Dhaka.
SANOG XI is being sponsored by a few prominent international organizations like; Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), Internet Society, APIA, Network Startup Resource Centre, PCH, Juniper Networks and CISCO. Among the Government bodies Business Promotion Council assisted us with immense financial support whereas, Bangladesh Internet Exchange (BDIX), assisted us with technical support. Locally ISPs like; BDCOM, Agni, Grammen CyberNet, Connect BD, Global Online, Dhaka Com and Alap Communication are also sponsoring this event. SANOG is being hosted by ISPABD for the second time in Dhaka. This version of SANOG will incorporate 9 days of workshop and tutorial with expanded conference days. It will also be the largest networking conference in Dhaka in recent years.
The training programs will be running on three different tracks simultaneously and each track will concentrate on the latest networking issues. The topics covered will be Multiprotocol Label Switching Network design and Deployment, ISP/NSP Security and Routing and IPv6 Deployment and Applications. These workshops would be conducted by internationally renowned personalities who are experts in the respective fields. Combined in the three tracks of workshop more than 90 participants, most of them coming from the various ISPs, Universities, ICT companies and various other organizations. There are also a few international participants attending these workshops from India, Nepal, Srilanka and Pakistan. Therefore SANOG XI is being true to its name by hosting participants form all over South Asia.
The tutorial sessions would focus on Routing, Application and Policy Making. Finally there is going to be a conference on the last two days of SANOG XI.
These training workshops and tutorial sessions are going to help various professionals from every ICT sector of Bangladesh by notifying and explaining them the latest in networking protocols and application. SANOG was organized by ISP Association of Bangladesh in the past and will be organizing more in the future. SANOG XI is going to be an effective way for developing skilled manpower and the ICT sector of Bangladesh as a whole.
Official Website: www.sanog.org/sanog11/
News URL :
www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=18811 (English)
www.prothom-alo.com/mcat.news.details.php?nid=Nzc2OTU=&mid=MTE= (Bengali)
[ Read the rest ... ]
Posted by azhar on Friday 11 January 2008 - 03:09:33
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Read/Post Comment: 47
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GP CEO admits 'additional irregularities'
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GP CEO admits 'additional irregularities'
Staff Correspondent
Grameenphone CEO Anders Jensen in a statement last night said some additional irregularities have been found relating to Grameenphone providing special service to illegal VoIP operators.
An investigation is ongoing and Grameenphone is fully cooperating with the law enforcement agencies in this regard, said the statement issued after seizure of VoIP equipment from the house of the owner of another company, AccessTel.
I have been completely taken by surprise by this latest development as all of this happened before I started my tenure as CEO. Apparently not all information was given to me. I was assured by the relevant people in the company that all VoIP-related issues were already cleared, said Jensen.
We are trying to get to the bottom of this whole affair and I can assure that stern measures will be taken against anyone involved within Grameenphone, he added.
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Illegal VoIP Business
GP-supplied equipment seized from house of AccessTel owner
Staff Correspondent
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday raided the head office of Grameenphone after it "found out Grameenphone's involvement" in providing illegal VoIP (voice over internet protocol) equipment to an Internet service provider (ISP).
Rab officials said Grameenphone supplied VoIP switches to AccessTel, which was running illegal VoIP business using the switches. Rab personnel claimed they seized VoIP equipment worth Tk 50 lakh from the house of AccessTel owner on Road-105 of Gulshan-2 in the city yesterday.
Grameenphone authorities last night said some additional irregularities were found regarding Grameenphone providing special services to illegal VoIP operators.
Lt Khandaker Al Moin of Rab's intelligence wing told The Daily Star last night, "Earlier, we raided the Grameenphone office and found that customers used Grameenphone's SIMs [subscriber identity module] to run VoIP businesses."
He said at that time Grameenphone denied they were involved in the act. "Now we have found evidence of Grameenphone's direct involvement," Moin said.
Major Shamsuzzoha, who was leading the drive, told reporters at the Grameenphone head office last night that they have seized technical data showing Grameenphone's involvement in the act.
He said earlier Grameenphone gave them some information but during the raid they became sure that Grameenphone had also concealed information.
He said they started the operation at different buildings in Gulshan where Grameenphone is housed. "It could be morning [today morning] before the search is complete," he said.
A representative of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) accompanied the Rab personnel during the raid.
In October, BTRC found Grameenphone's illegal VoIP operation at its Moghbazar office in the capital during a drive. It fined Grameenphone Tk 168.40 crore for illegal VoIP business.
Posted by azhar on Friday 07 December 2007 - 23:50:40
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Read/Post Comment: 66
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