It has been around 17 months that the government halted issuing and renewing internet service providers’ licences, creating a lot of mishmash in the business.

Some leading internet companies said they are losing a considerable amount of business as corporate offices are discontinuing contracts for this halt. A senior executive of a leading internet service provider (ISP) complained that a multinational company recently discontinued its agreement with them for the absence of a valid licence. He said they had fulfilled all renewal conditions and paid required fees and charges well ahead of the expiry of their five-year licence on October 22 last year.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) had also sent its renewal recommendation to the telecom division before the stipulated date. However, there was no response. An official at the telecom division said there were over 300 such licence renewal recommendations awaiting a decision at the telecom division. BTRC had also sent proposals to provide over 410 new licences, all of which were pending with the division, said the official.

The telecom division in June last year decided to stop awarding and renewing licences to check the status of ISPs, said the official requesting anonymity, adding, “But that status quo has never been withdrawn.” Another official reasoned that the government might be waiting to decide on suggestions to increase licence fees and impose revenue sharing rules. However, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the prime minister’s ICT affairs adviser, in a meeting two weeks back dismissed the suggestions and so the pending tasks may again be taken up, he added.

Shahjahan Mahmood, chairman of the telecom regulatory commission, said the internet industry was now on a “pause mode”. “We are observing the situation and found that nothing is moving, which is negatively impacting the industry,” said Mahmood.

He said they were trying to break out of the stagnant situation. He hoped that decisions would start coming within a month or two. The telecom act says the government has to give a decision in 180 days on receiving BTRC’s recommendation to award a licence to a business.

Even if the application is rejected, the business concerned has to be informed through BTRC within the stipulated timeframe. Md Emdadul Haque, general secretary of Internet Service Providers’ Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB), said internet business has been running through tough times as there was a lot of confusion everywhere, starting from licensing to monitoring.

“We are observing a lack of regulation in the internet business and a lot of unlicensed companies are taking advantage of the situation,” he said. He said they requested the government to tend to the pending issues but that has not happened. Right now there are 600 licences for internet business. Of them, 129 are for running business nationwide, 146 for specified zones and a good number for districts and upazilas, according to a BTRC report. Besides, hundreds of business entities are also running operations illegally, said Haque.

He said the telecom regulator has limited capacity to monitor the business and that also created a lot of concerns over cyber security. There are about 70 lakh active internet connections linked to ISPs as of August, using over 250 Gbps of bandwidth, according to the BTRC. The country’s total bandwidth consumption is about 450 Gbps.

Europe’s economic recovery is gathering steam, with eurozone unemployment falling to its lowest level since January 2009 and inflation picking up, official figures showed Thursday.

The EU’s official statistics agency announced that the jobless rate in the single currency area fell to 8.8 percent in October, with inflation rising to 1.5 percent.

The positive data come after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced it was starting to wind down the massive support it has given the 19-member currency zone to help it through the crises of recent years.

Seasonally-adjusted unemployment in the eurozone was down from 8.9 percent in September, while the figure for the EU as a whole was 7.5 percent — the lowest since November 2008, Eurostat said.

New cantonment in Patuakhali

The government is going to set up a fully-fledged cantonment named after Sheikh Hasina at Payra in Patuakhali to enhance national security and face the aftermath of natural disasters. The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) yesterday approved the Tk 1,699-crore project to be fully financed by the government. The cantonment would be founded by 2021, decided the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the NEC Auditorium of the planning ministry. After the meeting Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters there was no cantonment in the greater coastal belt of Barisal and Patuakhali. As a result, soldiers from far-off Jessore Cantonment have to respond from 200km away to natural calamities in the south, he added. The minister said defence, disaster management and assistance to local administration in 21 districts in the area have been provided from Jessore Cantonment since independence.

The Bangladesh Army was formed in 1972 comprising three brigades and has now been expanded into nine divisions and 30 cantonments. The new cantonment is being built in an area, where the government, of late, has laid out a series of development projects including building a deep-sea port and constructing large power and LNG units. Replying to a question, the minister said the premier gave the idea of building the cantonment and that is why it is being named after her. According to a planning ministry proposal, the cantonment will be built on 1,532 acres of land, of which 567 acres has so far been acquired.

The land in the project area has been formed by chars emerged there since 1975 and is devoid of human habitation. As a result, no people need to be rehabilitated or will be affected if the cantonment is built there. Under the project, eight office buildings each up to four storeys and 12 residential buildings each up to 14 storeys will be built.

The ECNEC also okayed another project for construction of Bheramara (Bangladesh)- Bahrampur (India) Second 400 KV Double Circuit Transmission Line (Bangladesh Part) involving Tk 189 crore. Currently, a 500 megawatt high voltage direct current back-to-back station has been set up at Bheramara and a 400 KV Transmission Line exists from Bheramara to Bahrampur. Bangladesh imports 500 MW electricity from India which would increase to 1,000 MW. As part of the plan, a second transmission line is being set up.

The ECNEC also approved another project named Dredging at the Outer Bar of Mongla Port Channel that would take Tk 713 crore. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2019.

The planning ministry proposal says at the entrance of the Mongla Port Channel there is a shallow river route called Outer Bar.

During high tide the channel has maximum 8.5-metre draught. The proposal says as a possibility of handling and transporting goods from India, Nepal and Bhutan through the Mongla Port has been created, the depth of the Outer Bar should increase. When the Padma Bridge is open and the Padma rail link from Dhaka to Jessore is set up, the port’s importance will increase manifolds. A 1,320 MW coal-based power plant is also going to be installed there. The navigability of the port will be upgraded so that the channel’s draught increases to 10.5 metres. The ECNEC yesterday approved as many as 10 new and revised projects including these three that would involve Tk 3,334 crore.