Why is broadband internet so slow now?: Experts tell TBS

The two main factors plaguing broadband internet connections, which need to be addressed first, are – halted services for mobile data and the disconnected cache servers.

Speaking to The Business Standard, Internet Service Provider Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) President Md Emdadul Hoque said these two together had slowed broadband internet speed down to around one-fifth of the usual. 

"Without resuming mobile internet and the disconnected cache servers, broadband speed will not increase. Right now, with all cable internet connections restored across the country, the entire broadband bandwidth capacity is exhausted," Md Emdadul Hoque told TBS this morning.

Cable broadband sector consumes around 55% of the country's over 6,300 GBPS international bandwidth, while mobile operators consume the remaining 3,000 GBPS bandwidth.

The load from the mobile data users overburdens broadband. 

More importantly, the disconnected local cache servers resulted in a manifold consumption of international bandwidth, according to the leader of the country's internet service providers (ISPs).

A caching server is a dedicated network server or service acting as a storage. It saves web pages or other internet content locally. By placing previously requested information in temporary storage (or cache), a caching server speeds up access to data and reduces demand on your bandwidth.

Local cache servers save international bandwidth by hosting information or content in servers within the country and its extent is large.

Of the traffic Bangladeshi internet users were generating, more than 80% were being catered to by local cache servers. 

As the cache servers are not working now, almost the entire internet traffic is international bandwidth dependent, Emdadul said while explaining why internet speed is low.

Cache servers are maintained by internet service providers as they want to save international traffic that costs them much higher. 

Google and Meta cache servers are the biggest here as most of the traffic is concentrated there.

Who disconnected the cache servers was not clear, though.

"I am not informed about any regulatory order to disconnect local cache servers," Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Commissioner Engineer Sheikh Reaz Ahmed told TBS today.   

Broadband connections across the country were restored yesterday after complete internet disruptions for five days. Extremely low speed, however, remains a pain for internet users. It is noted that nearly 13 crore out of over 14 crore internet connections in the country run through mobile phones.

State Minister for Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak told journalists on 18 July morning that the government restricted mobile internet on the previous night to stop circulation of content full of provocative misinformation against the government and the state.

That same evening, groups of unidentified people vandalised government and private properties, including the internet infrastructure. 

Several government and private sector servers were destroyed by arson attacks, State Minister Palak told journalists after visiting the devastated spots in the capital's Mohakhali area on Tuesday (23 July). 

At least in 40 spots in the country internet cables were cut or set on fire by terrorists and engineering teams were working hard to restore them to resume broadband connections, the state minister added.

Yesterday, following a meeting with internet service stakeholders, the state minister said the government is trying to resume mobile internet service by next Monday.