Decision on mobile internet tomorrow after meeting with AMTOB: Palak
"We did not intentionally shut down the internet," he says
A meeting with mobile operators will be held tomorrow to discuss the restoration of mobile internet 4G services, State Minister of Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said today.
"A meeting with Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) will be held at 9am tomorrow, and if the meeting is satisfactory, the 4G network will be restored by Sunday or Monday," the state minister announced while addressing an event held at Agargaon in the capital marking Sajeeb Wazed Joy's 54th birthday.
He claimed internet was not intentionally shut down but was disrupted due to the burning of three data centres and hundreds of kilometres of cables.
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These incidents caused a loss of Tk500 crore in the telecom sector alone and a total loss of hundreds of crores of taka, he added.
He also said that there were attacks at 17 locations in Dhaka Division. "In Mohakhali, three data centres housed 18 IIG systems, which host 70% of the ISP servers, causing the internet disruption. We did not intentionally shut down the internet."
Palak claimed that the disruption was a result of planned sabotage.
"Analysis of mobile operator data from 18 July showed that between 50,000 to 1,00,000 new SIM cards were used in areas including Uttara, Rampura, Mohammadpur, Jatrabari, and Gazipur," he said.
The meeting will also discuss determining whether users will be reimbursed for unused mobile data during the service suspension since 18 July, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) officials.
Mobile data services were shut at night on 17 July and the Mohakhali fires took place in the afternoon on 18 July which was followed by a nationwide broadband internet shutdown from 9:00pm that day.
Earlier, on 18 July, Palak told journalists that the government decided mobile internet restriction for the sake of law and order, blaming antagonist propaganda through "boosting social media contents full of provocative misinformation."
BTRC Chairman Engineer Md Mohiuddin Ahmed said some 4,000 cache servers were active in the country's internet ecosystem and having all those back in service would take 2-4 days.
Unlike Google and some others, the Meta platforms and TikTok users may have to wait more for smooth access as the government eyes their adherence to local demands for the sake of law and order.
Google cache servers were resumed on Thursday evening that restored speed for Youtube, Gmail and all other Google services.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC informed in a press statement today that due to a 12-hour maintenance work in Singapore, data services through its Cox's Bazar station will remain suspended from 6:00am to 6:00 pm on Saturday.
Emdadul Hoque, president of Internet Service Provider Association of Bangladesh, told The Business Standard that alternatives, including the other submarine cable that landed at Kuakata and the terrestrial cables importing bandwidth from India, did not let the internet services get weaker today.
After the resumption of the Cox's Bazar station, the added international bandwidth might help smoothen internet services this evening, he expected.
Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers' Association urged the government to form an independent enquiry committee to find out the real causes of the unprecedented five-day internet blackout as they are confused about the authenticity of government narrative that the damaged infrastructure alone caused internet blackout.
