146 educational institutions get govt Wi-Fi
The government yesterday launched Wi-Fi service at 146 public educational institutions in 23 districts, to be availed free of cost for the first two years.
This is the first such government project involving such as large number of colleges, universities and polytechnic and vocational training institutes.
Undertaken in 2018, the Tk 45 crore project aims to set up WiFi hotspots in 587 educational institutions by June.
Of the institutions, 143 are in Dhaka division, 107 in Chattogram, 85 Rajshahi, 83 Khulna, 56 Rangpur, 45 Barishal, 35 Mymensingh and 33 in Sylhet.
Students will get unique passwords, allowing one device to connect at a time. After the first two years, the institutions will have to pay nominal bandwidth charges.
Initially every institution will get 10 Mbps of bandwidth, said Rafiqul Motin, managing director of state-owned Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited (BTCL), which is running the project.
However, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, ICT affairs adviser of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, asked to increase it within a short time, he said.
Inaugurating the service at the Posts and Telecommunications Division in Bangladesh Secretariat, Joy said, “We have taken the project for the betterment of the students as they have demanded it to create a Digital Bangladesh.”
Only 1.3 percent of the population had internet access when the Awami League government came to office in 2009 and now the figure stands at about 60 percent, he said.
“My dream is to ensure internet for all, the 16-crore people of the country, and we are also working to achieve that vision,” he added.
A meeting was held afterwards when the BTRC informed of the Supreme Court directing Grameenphone to pay Tk 2,000 crore and High Court directing Robi Axiata to pay Tk 138 crore in audit-based dues.
The orders came against the BTRC’s claims of Tk 12,580 crore and Tk 867.23 crore respectively.
Joy directed the BTRC not to go for any further negotiation, such as out of court settlements, which was being worked on before the courts came up with the directives.
“As we already got some court orders, we need to follow that and we will not move for any out of the court settlement negotiation,” a top BTRC official who attended meeting quoted Joy as saying.
Telecom Minister Mustafa Jabbar presided over the meeting while Telecom Secretary Md Nur-Ur-Rahman and top brass of different government organisations were also present.
