Grameenphone aims to get 50 to 60 percent of the country's population online in the next three to four years, said the carrier's chief executive Vivek Sood at a roundtable yesterday.

Currently 22 percent people use the internet, according to the data of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

Sood urged all stakeholders including the government, regulator, carriers, application developers, equipment suppliers, device manufacturers to come forward in developing a comprehensive system for higher use of the internet in Bangladesh.

Sood was addressing the roundtable “Telenor Exchange-Empowering Societies Through Internet For All” at The Daily Star centre jointly organised by Grameenphone, its majority shareholder Telenor Group, and The Daily Star.

Grameenphone officials, ICT analysts, leaders of different trade bodies, journalists and officials of different IT firms took part in the discussion on the role of the internet in developing Bangladesh.

The Grameenphone chief said his company acquired 4.8 crore subscribers over the 17 years of the company's operations. Its entire countrywide network had internet services along with the voice service. “Internet For All is the second step forward for Grameenphone. The previous was communication ... ”

He said with every “10 percent data penetration increase, 0.5 percent GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth is observed”.

“The telecommunication sector as a whole contributed 1.2 percent in the GDP but if you consider the productivity and other factors, the effect of the connections on the GDP is 5 percent,” Sood said.

The effect of data connections in countries like Bangladesh was very significant on health, agriculture and education sectors when compared to developed countries.

“For example, 80 percent students of Bangladesh go for private tuitions, which are expensive, but if we can provide them with facilities for online education the cost of education can be slashed significantly,” he said.

Mahfuz Anam, Editor of The Daily Star, said Internet For All is doable in Bangladesh because of the technology revolution, the internet infrastructure is getting cheaper and better, and the high penetration of mobile phones in Bangladesh.

“It is doable because people of the country learn new things very easily,” he said. “If you lay 1 kilometre of optical fibre line in the country, you may get far higher use of it compared to any other country in terms of per capita investment.”

The editor said the internet was great for bridging the gap between poor and rich countries and people, and the rural and urban population.

The objective of the event was to discuss how to achieve the Internet For All goal.

The discussion focused on the challenges of the internet penetration in Bangladesh, like affordability of smartphones for the masses, internet cost and speed, application development, and tax related issues.

Anders Hallin, chief strategy officer of Telenor Digital of Telenor Group, said media could play a vital role in building the comprehensive system for the internet by covering success stories that encourage others to be innovative.

Big companies could not build the comprehensive internet system, rather small entrepreneurs did, which has had happened in Bangkok over the last couple of years, he said.

Mustafa Jabbar, President of Bangladesh Computer Samity, said 15 percent value added tax (VAT) on internet usage should be withdrawn.

He added that if the whole country could not be covered with 3G service, it would not be possible to achieve the goal of Internet For All.

The country's five mobile phone carriers were providing 3G services mainly in the divisional cities and the government gave the spectrum in September last year, he said.

He said the government was selling 1 megabit per second for Tk 4,800 but it was asking businesses to sell the same bandwidth for Tk 200. Around 200 gigabits per second bandwidth remain unused due to high charges, he said.

Aminur Rashid, chief executive officer of Symphony Mobile, said 97 percent internet users were mobile device users in Bangladesh even though 40 percent of the smartphone users do not use the internet.

Salehuddin Ahmed, managing editor of The Daily Star, moderating the discussion said smartphone affordability was an issue, which should be addressed so that students could use them.

SM Ashfaque Hussain, executive director of Bangladesh Computer Council, said the government was thinking about reducing the internet charges soon. He requested the carriers to reduce the internet rates.

Russell T Ahmed, secretary general of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, said the internet price was not an issue; rather mobile applications would pilot high use of the internet. If the government did not declare the internet a basic commodity, it would not be possible to expand its usage.

Munir Hasan, general secretary of Bangladesh Open Source Society, said young Bangladeshis were earning Tk 1.1 crore by doing freelance work over the internet. Now user-generated content should be developed, he said.

Erlend Prestgard, head of strategy of Grameenphone, said currently carriers in Bangladesh were providing the lowest voice tariff in the world. If the government provided proper regulation and policy support, the same thing would happen for data services, he said.

“We would love to provide WiFi support to the educational institutions but the regulations do not allow us.”