Broadband almost restored, slow speeds still a concern

After 24 hours of restoration efforts, nearly all broadband users across the country had their internet connections back by wednesday evening, according to the Internet Service Provider Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB).

However, many users told TBS that they were still concerned about slow speeds and were unable to access social media and common messaging platforms.

"No broadband user is left behind right now," Md Emdadul Hoque, president of the association, told TBS at 9pm. He added that over 80% of the 11 million fixed internet connections are working.

The remaining connections are experiencing technical issues with individual service providers, he explained.

For example, some connections had cable problems, while other providers were taking longer to complete troubleshooting tasks that had been pending for five days. He expressed hope that the remaining connections would be restored soon.

At a press briefing today (24 July), State Minister for Posts, Telecommunication, and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said that broadband internet service was first restored for users with significant economic impact. It was then gradually made available to everyone.

He also hoped that mobile internet would be back by next Monday.

Representatives from prioritised sectors told TBS that while broadband was initially restored in specific areas, many of their users were still disconnected in the morning. These connections were gradually restored before household connections resumed.

Abdullah Hil Rakib, vice president of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said the restored connectivity was a big relief for the apparel industry. However, low speeds remained a concern, especially for factories heavily reliant on internet-dependent automation.

Yesterday, activities in ports, banking, the capital market, manufacturing, and service sectors resumed with the partial restoration of internet services.

By evening, residential users in at least 30 villages confirmed that their broadband was restored, alongside urban users. However, everyone reported dissatisfaction with the extremely low speeds, which they had not encountered in the past 3-4 years.

Tanjiba Rahman, chairperson of the Bangladesh Freelancer Development Society, said that by 8pm, almost all individual freelancers had their broadband connections restored. "However, speed remained a concern for ICT freelancers working on data-intensive tasks," she added. "Additionally, social media restrictions affected many digital marketing professionals."

Russel T Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, said the restoration of connectivity prevented significant economic losses and expressed hope for a quicker improvement in internet quality.

Kyser Hamid, managing director of Bangladesh Finance and vice chairman of the Bangladesh Leasing Finance Companies Association, said the slow broadband speeds and lack of mobile data made banking tasks difficult.

He noted that activities were limited on the first day after the general holidays and stressed that both issues should be resolved soon for smoother operations.

For example, he mentioned that several satellite applications supporting core banking software require faster internet, and many authentications now depend on mobile connectivity.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak has blamed the severe attacks on Thursday and Friday on damage to national infrastructure, including the internet. However, industry sources have cited another issue affecting data speeds.

They said that to control social media use, the government restricted traffic through local cache servers and required all traffic to pass through international internet connections. This increased national internet data consumption.

The ISPAB president told TBS that Bangladesh's internet bandwidth capacity is 6,000 GBPS. Local cache servers for popular sites like Google and Meta can reduce international bandwidth use by five to six times.