Bangladesh lags behind Asia Pacific peers in telecom services: GSMA
In the digital age, Bangladesh's mobile telecom markets continues to be dominated by the next generation (2G) services while scenarios in other Asia Pacific countries are very different and are predominated by 4G services, according to a GSMA record published on Monday.
The 2G technology is the mobile phone communications standard allowing mostly voice calls, SMS and limited info transmission while 4G is more info driven.
By 2025 Bangladesh will be a data driven marketplace where 4G services will dominate with a 46 % talk about, reads The Groupe Speciale Cell Association (GSMA) article "The Mobile Market Asia Pacific 2020".
However, Bangladesh is in a position below the average common of the Asia Pacific countries in virtually all the parameters and the problem can last long ever immediately after five years, the report's data shows.
Senior executives of cellular operators said large tax and regulatory challenges were the key barriers for Bangladesh lagging in back of in the table.
"Our regulatory situation may be the worst possible on earth and at the same time the government is increasing taxes every year on telecom offerings which halted new adoptions," said a high executive of a respected cellular carrier of Bangladesh requesting anonymity.
The 2G technology will become obsolete in almost all of the created Asia Pacific countries next year or two but till 2025, 18 % of Bangladesh's telecommunication customers will be "only" calling users requiring no info access.
The GSMA ran the study in recent years with numbers of 2019 and estimates of 2025.
In line with the GSMA, at the end of 2019 about 54 per cent of men and women in Bangladesh were utilizing mobile phones, which 25 per cent had internet access.
They estimated that unique user numbers will reach 59 % by 2025 and of it 38 per cent will be internet users.
Bangladesh are certain to get 25 million new internet surfers found in these five years, they said.
In 2025, of the full total internet surfers of Bangladesh, only 6 per cent use 5G while 4G will dominate the marketplace having 46 % of the total data users. In those days 3G users will total 30 % and 18 per cent will still be linked to 2G.
However, towards the end of 2019, only 10 per cent of internet users experienced 4G connections in the forex market, 40 % 3G and one half of the cellular phone users just using it for calling needs.
Aside from Bangladesh, Pakistan may be the other region where 2G continues to be dominating the marketplace. Bangladesh can be the worst in position when it comes to using smartphones, a whole lot worse than Pakistan.
Currently smartphone penetration in Bangladesh is merely 40 per cent and it'll reach 69 % after five years, reads the report. In Pakistan smartphone penetration is usually 46 per cent and it will grow up to 85 % by 2025.
Mobile penetration found in Bangladesh already reached 100 % which is preferable to India (78 %) and Pakistan (76 %) and you will be before them even in 2025.
But different countries mentioned such as for example Indonesia, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea are evidently ahead at this stage. Ever some of these countries have 150 per cent penetration.
The last five countries mentioned formed a fresh platform - APAC 5G Forum - which is top rated in this region's 5G services and the report mentioned that there will be no 2G service in those countries in 2025 while 3G will exist only among around 1 % of mobile users.
Of this, the Australian and South Korean marketplaces will dominate with 5G and the rest of the three would record a significant share.
Nine markets of this region have previously launched commercial mobile 5G services and 12 others have officially announced plans to launch it and Bangladesh is going to be nowhere with regard compared to that, reads the GSMA article.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) formed a committee last year to get ready a draft guideline in 5G service and at first planned to release the 5G support by 2023. Even so, for the Covid-19 circumstances all preparations have already been halted for months.
About Bangladesh's situation, the GSMA said the 5G opportunity was for an extended term, mainly because there is still a lot of bedroom to grow for 4G, that was the dominant mobile technology across Asia Pacific and would continue to be so for the near future.
According to the report, about 663 million new people across the region would begin using mobile internet by 2025 and most them will come coming from China (261 million), India (190 million), Pakistan (46 million), Indonesia (44 million) and Bangladesh (25 million).
The report also reads that 6.3 billion new internet of things (IoT) connections will maintain Asia Pacific next five years, accounting for one half of global new additions, with smart homes and structures being the main element growth verticals.
Currently there are 5.2 billion IoT connections in this area.
The Covid-19 pandemic will cause 18 % fewer 5G connections in this area than previously expected.
Mobile data traffic intake was first 9.2 GB per subscriber monthly which will increase a lot more than threefold to attain 28.9 GB in 2025.
However, in line with the top three carriers, the average internet end user in Bangladesh happens to be consuming about 2 GB of data monthly.
