Internet speeds likely to improve as all cache servers except Meta, TikTok resume

Internet speeds for broadband users in the country are likely to improve within the next 24 hours as the authorities have instructed the resumption of cache servers of foreign websites, excluding Meta and TikTok.

Industry experts said the cache servers were resumed yesterday afternoon after the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) instructed International Internet Gateway (IIG) providers and other relevant firms to resume the local cache servers for popular foreign websites.

However, the resumption order excluded Meta – the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram – and TikTok. Government sources said Meta and TikTok did not satisfactorily respond to local law enforcement's requests, leading to the continued suspension of their cache servers.

The resumption of cache servers is expected to reduce the heavy load on international internet bandwidth and improve broadband internet speed by at least one-third.

Broadband connections across the country were mostly restored by yesterday after a five-day blackout till Tuesday evening.

However, extremely low speeds became a pain for internet users, and the calls for speed restoration alongside resumption of mobile internet were getting louder as nearly 13 crore of the over 14 crore internet connections in the country are through mobile.

Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) President Md Emdadul Hoque told The Business Standard that two factors together slowed the broadband internet speed down to around one-fifth – halted services for mobile data and local cache servers.

"So, the resumption of Google's cache server, which accounts for over 30% of the country's cache data traffic, mainly because of YouTube, is a big relief for us," he added.

Two IIG executives, who wished to remain anonymous, mentioned that Meta's content consumes over 40% of the country's cache server capacity. "Resuming those will be important for internet speed restoration," they added.

Emdadul further told TBS that the benefits of the resumed cache services would be evident within 12-24 hours, with broadband speed expected to increase by at least one-third. 

Earlier yesterday morning, he said that the 3,300GBPS international bandwidth allocated for broadband internet providers had been fully exhausted after restoring about 1.1 crore cable internet connections across the country by Wednesday night, due to the absence of cache services.

"Without cache services, international bandwidth consumption could have been 5-6 times higher," he added. 

Cache servers act as local intermediaries for popular content from foreign servers, significantly improving internet speed and reducing bandwidth consumption. The country's servers are mainly maintained by nationwide internet service providers (ISPs), National Internet Exchange (NIX) and International Internet Gateway (IIGs) 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.

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

The load from the mobile data users now 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).

Local cache servers save international bandwidth by hosting information or contents in servers within the country and the extent is really huge.

Of the traffic Bangladeshi internet users were generating, more than 80% were being catered by local cache servers. As the cache servers are not working now, almost the entire internet traffic went international bandwidth dependent, he said while explaining why internet speed is too low.

Who disconnected cache servers was not clear

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

Industry sources, however, told TBS that the government, to restrict social media, forced the disconnection of the cache servers.

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

Around 9pm on the same day, the government shut down broadband internet, leaving the digitalised society and economy disconnected for five days. The government said that internet service had been halted because the internet infrastructure was severely damaged by attacks during the violence over anti-quota protests.

"Several government and private sector servers were destroyed by arson," the state minister told journalists after visiting devastated spots in the capital's Mohakhali area on Tuesday.

"In at least 40 spots in the country, internet cables were cut or set on fire by terrorists, and engineering teams are working hard to restore them to resume broadband connections," he said.

On Wednesday, following a meeting with internet service stakeholders, Palak said the government was trying to resume mobile internet by Monday.