History & Evolution of
Bangladesh Internet
Sumon Ahmed Sabir
sumon@fiberathome.net

Technology evolution & Growth
User experience & Usage Trend
Policy Impact

Time Line
• 1993-1996 Off line Email Era
(UUCP)
• 1996 VSAT Based Internet
Service
• 1996-2002 Dial Up Internet
• 2000 First HFC Deployed in
Dhaka
• 2001-2005 xDSL Service
• 2005 SANOG IV
• 2002-2008 Cybercafé and
Ethernet based local provider
mushroomed
• 2004 BDIX starts
• 2005-Optical Fiber based
Connectivity starts for Metro
• 2005 GPRS/Edge started
• 2006 SMW-4 starts
• 2008 ILDTS Policy (IIG/IGW/
ICX)
• 2008 Formation of BDCERT
(Bangladesh Computer
Emergency Response Team
• 2008 IPTSP(IP Telephony
Service launched by ISPs)
• 2009 WiMAX starts
• 2009 NTTN appears in value
chain
• 2009 FTTH Deployment starts
• 2013 3G Roll out begins

Old Days(UUCP Mail)
# /usr/sbin/uucico –DSuunet –x3 &
Sendmail as UUCP Mail Exchanger
PPPD and SLIP to accept User Connection
Typical connection time: Less than a minute
UUNET and Singnet were
the default destination
Eudora was the most
popular Email Client

Old Days(1993-­‐‑1996)
• Drik
• Prodeshta
• BDMAIL(now BracNet)
• Agni
• BDNET
• BDCOM
• Kaifnet
• Proshika
Email Charge: 2Taka/Kilo Byte
Typical Email Size: less than 2KB

First Internet in
Bangladesh
• June 6, 1996
Information Services
Network Limited (ISN)
first launched Internet
Service using VSAT
• Followed by Grameen
Cybernet in next month.
• Gradually all followed
and a mushroom
growth in the number of
ISPs observed between
1996 to 2002

Dial up Internet
• Charge: 3Tk/Min
• 64 kbps VSAT rent: 8000$/Month
Primary
Application was
Email
Routing:
Default Static
Route

ISP POP in Dialup Era
• Popular Hardware:
o Router: Cisco 2501
o VSAT Modem: Comtech
o Access Server: Lucent Portmaster, Cisco
3600
o Modem: US Robotics Sportstar
Telephone Lines for ISPs were precious
resources
ISPs spent avg BDT 40k/Telephone Line

BTTB comes in the Picture
• BTTB(now BTCL) started Dialup Internet Service in
1999
• Being the only telephone operator gained a major
market share
• ISPs considered it as a major threat for there
business
• Total number of subscribers in BTTB were around 25k

.bd ccTLD 2000
• .bd ccTLD starts serving around 2000
• Country got its own identity in the domain name,
maintained by incumbent BTTB(Now BTCL)
• Unfortunately become one of the most poorly
maintained ccTLD
• Does not support IPv6
• Not signed yet
• One of the server still running bind version 4
• No mirror in any second co-location
• Does not maintain at least 5 basic
recommendations by IANA

HFC/xDSL/Radio 2001
• Unbundling copper didn’t happened in Bangladesh
nor the incumbent offered ADSL.
• Due to growing demand of high speed connectivity
ISPs started deploying their own copper wire over
the electric poles. Some deployed Hybrid Fiber
Coax(HFC)
• Links went upto 4 to 6 km with a speed of 2 to 8
mbps
• Within 2/3 years electric poles become jungles of
color full copper wires.
• Ethernet Radio’s came to picture that time to
connect remote offices and ISP POP’s.

Cybercafés 2002-­‐‑
• Cybercafé's started to be visible in the every corner
of the city
• Gradually extended their Ethernet to the
neighboring areas and started operating like local
ISPs
• Before proliferation of mobile Internet they played a
major role for Internet access for many people

Motivation for an IX
• All ISPs were using VSAT for IP Transit
• Each ISP was like an island.
• Latency to Singapore was around 550ms whereas
having broadband, latency to next door ISPs were
above 1000ms
• Need for an Internet Exchange Point felt badly
• Many initiative taken but didn’t worked out

Why IX?
ISP1
ISP2
ISP3
ISP4
IPS5
IPS6
IX

BDIX 2004
• Started in August 2004
• BDIX reduced the latency to
5ms for local traffic
• People started to experience
what broadband is……

BDIX Traffic
August 13 , 2008
March 10, 2010
November 2, 2010
May 22, 2014

SANOG IV 2004
• SANOG first time came to Bangladesh in 2004
• First time Internet engineers in Bangladesh got
exposure to the peoples who have great
contribution building todays Internet
• Boys and Girls learned the Industry Best Practices
• Created a bridge between APNIC and local
industry

SANOG IV 2004
• After SANOG IV it came back to Bangladesh Again
o 2008
o 2010
o 2013

Metro Ethernet/FTTx 2005
• xDSL services didn’t sustained for long. As overhead
cables are prone to electric surge and
Thunderstorm. Many ISP’s lost there whole setup or a
part in a stormy night.
• Stealing ISPs copper cable become a side business
for few people

Metro Ethernet/FTTx 2005
• ISPs had no options but going for Fiber to the
building
• Leaving Japanese and Korean cities apart
probably Dhaka has the largest number of houses
connected with fiber
• Initially Fiber terminated to Ethernet Switch/Media
Converter, now gradually migrating to GPON and
GEPON

Copper => Fiber

Mobile Internet 2005
• ISPs were mostly concentrated in Dhaka City and few
other Big Cities. Rest of the country was out of Internet
reach.
• In 2005 Mobile network was covering almost every part
of the country.
• Introduction of Mobile Internet in the form of GPRS/
EDGE/CDMA-1x brings most of the population under
Internet coverage.
• Introduces mobility
• Soon become the most popular means of Internet
access
• Still more than 75% of Internet users depend on this
• Interestingly till now most of the mobile operators
avoiding the IX.

SMW-­‐‑4 2006
• Preparing to connect
with SMW-4

Inception of SMW-­‐‑4
• Cable inaugurated in Bangladesh in
October 2005
• Internet Service Activated on May 20,
2006
• Initially with a STM-­‐‑1 link from MCI
• Improvements
• Latency comes down from 900ms to
200ms(US)
• Second STM1 to Singapore brought
down the latency to 60ms up to
Singapore
• Significantly improved the quality of
services
• But frequent Fiber cut in land and wet
segment force everyone to have their
costly VSAT as it is.
SANOG BGP Workshop came
to use when most of the ISPs
become Multi-­‐‑Homed
APNIC noticed sudden jump
in the membership numbers

ILTDS Policy 2007
• In 2006 BTRC was in a process of issuing VoIP license,
But government change in 2007 reversed
everything
• International Long Distance Telecommunication
Services Policy 2007 appears
• Resulted three new artificial entity IIG, IGW and ICX
• It also created IPTSP, Call Center and NIX licensing
• Caused a permanent damage in Telecom and ICT
environment
• Resulted amendment in 2010 and made the
damage irrecoverable, created a new entity VSP

ILDTS Policy 2007

IPTSP License 2008/9
• ILTDS Policy bared ISPs from doing International VoIP
but issues a license to operate domestic voice over
IP network
• Now many corporates, Banks, Call Centers are
dependent on IP Telephony for there regular voice
communication and leveraging the Smart features
offered by the IP Telephony providers.
• Though it didn’t picked up as home phone mostly
due to power unavailibility

Cyber Incidents and
Cyber Security
• SMW-4 make higher bandwidth affordable
• It also opens the door for more and more cyber
incidents, security risks
• ISPs started to get complains regularly on
o Phishing sites
o Spamming
o BOTS
o DDOS attacks
• There were no organized group to help
• Bangladesh Computer Emergency Team(BDCERT)
evolved to coordinate and support local and
International community

BDCERT 2008
BDCERT is formed by
few motivated
individuals from all the
sectors
• Since inception
BDCERT is doing
incident response
• Conducting
Security workshops
almost every year
which includes all
the stake holders
including Law
enforcing agencies

WiMAX License 2009
• One of the Most High valued license issued issued in
2009 to three WiMAX operators. Two goes online
• It was a major value addition for the Mobile Internet
Users
• But they are now almost forced to move to LTE as
WiMAX becoming a legacy

NTTN appears in the
value chain: 2009
• In absence of underground fiber, streets become
jungle of fiber replacing the xDSL copper wire.
• Long haul capacity were over priced by telco’s.
• Creates opportunity for common backbone
provider

NTTN appears in the
value chain: 2009
• Presently two NTTN operators has more than 6000km
of long haul fiber connecting all the major cities
• Covering important areas of major metro’s
• Proving Dark Fiber, MPLS, SDH, GPON, 3G/2G Back
haul for the ISPs and Telco’s

ISOC Dhaka Chapter 2011
• ISOC Dhaka Chapter rejuvenated in 2011
• Since then ISOC Dhaka Chapter contributing by
doing workshops, seminars, round tables and other
activities

Terrestrial Connectivity
Delhi
Kolkata
Hyderabad
Bangalore
Cochin
Chennai
IMEWE
TGN Eurasia
SEA-ME-WE3
Mumbai
SEA-ME-WE4
SMW3
SAFE
SMW4
TIC
I2I
Cox’s Bazar
SMW4

ITC Operators Enter
Market 2012
• Long awaited redundancy for SMW-4 cable become
available in 2012 in the form of ITC.
• Six International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) Licenses issued by
BTRC
• All Six operators are connected with Indian ILD operators
at (Bharti Airtel & Tata Communications) Benapole
border
• Along with SMW-4 cable we have got access to I2I, TIC,
IMEWE, SMW-3 and few other cables
• Uptime sensitive business like call center and others first
time got opportunity to flourish
• At present half of the total Internet Traffic (75GBPS)
passes via ITC(40 GBPS)

3G/LTE Roll out 2013
• 3G takes off in Bangladesh in October 2013 after a
3 years long debate on license fees
• Just passed the teething period
• Now available in all the district towns
• People leaving in the small towns eagerly waiting
for 3G to be deployed as FTTH there is a long way to
go

2nd Submarine Cable 2013
• BSCCL signed for SMW-5 submarine cable System
• Probable activation on 2016
• Will reduce dependency to terrestrial cables in India

Broadband now
A leaflet from small area based ISP

Policy and Regulatory
Impacts
• Illegal Call Termination via Internet begins in 1998
o Since then it has a huge impact in the Internet industry in Bangladesh
o One of the root cause of mushroom growth of ISPs
o Corrupted the whole Internet and telecom value chain
o People from every discipline got involved in it
o Still more than 40% of International Voice Call comes via illegal call
termination
• Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission
formed in 2002
o Illegal Call Termination still a major challenge for BTRC
o Policies taken by BTRC heavily impacted the growth of Internet. Some
times in the positive direction, some times otherwise

Capacity Building &
Peering
• Apart from SANOG
o APNIC with collaboration from ISPAB and ISOC Dhaka conducting Series
of training workshop
o ISPAB Has its own training and awareness programs
o BDCERT doing regular security workshop and awareness campaign
• And now its BDNOG
o Starting its journey with this BDNOG1 conference
o Seeks collaboration from everyone to make contribution to build a better
Internet in Bangladesh