How much is restored internet helping ICT professionals?

Highlights
•    Uploading downloading speed not even half
•    IT-enabled businesses' down 70-80%
•    Foreign clients withdrawing 
•    ICT professionals going abroad for seamless connectivity
•    Industry seeks promise of no internet disruption in future

Leaving behind the debates on what disconnected the internet in the country, internet users here, especially the ICT professionals, are now desperate to get the required speed and seamless connectivity for smooth operations.

ASL BPO, a leading business process outsourcing firm, was at the final stage of winning a long-term outsourcing contract from a US mortgage processing company as a Bangladeshi-American top manager there was eyeing a firm from Dhaka.

"We were preparing to engage a team of 150 for an annual revenue of $18 million from the contract. On 29 July the foreign firm backtracked, saying they cannot rely on our internet connectivity anymore," said Zayed Ahmed, founder and CEO of the firm and also co-chairman of the Global Market Development Subcommittee of the Bangladesh Association of Contact Centre and Outsourcing (BACCO).

"In fact, the foreign company is choosing none from Bangladesh," he added.

HM Hamiduzzaman, founder and CEO of the digital marketing firm Degency that serves global clients, said, "Due to the poor internet speed now, our productivity is already 70-80% down."

His team of 16 working from Dhaka, now earns an annual revenue of $2.5 million from the complete digital marketing solutions being provided to a US online commerce company alone since 2019.

"I am afraid we are going to lose the contract," said the young entrepreneur, adding that the client was understanding enough when the internet was off here.

But they are not ready to listen to anything about the post-restoration issues with internet speed firms like his are going through now, he said.

"Almost all our work is through cloud services that are fully dependent on speedy internet as gigantic files need to be uploaded and downloaded several times," he said, adding that loading a web-based application like Figma for web or app interface creation became a big struggle while poor speed is frequently causing task timeouts, forcing the teams retrying and retrying.

"Professional work cannot go on like this. Many companies, desperate to retain global clients, are sending teams to neighbouring countries as they get seamless connectivity there," he said.

Echoing Hamiduzzaman, Tanjiba Rahman, chairperson of the Bangladesh Freelancer Development Society, said outsourced graphic or video designing, web development or digital marketing tasks of an hour is even taking 7-8 hours.

BACCO President Wahid Shairf said many outsourcing firms are under pressure from their global clients as they failed to deliver as per the service level agreements and the global companies need a reliable promise from the government that internet issues will not repeat ever, before relocating their sourcing of the online services.

Connectivity could have been the lifeline for the ever-growing gigantic online workforce in Bangladesh during the turbulent days and the internet disruption added to their pains, said the online entrepreneurs.

The digital market agencies and individual freelancers providing social media services to global clients are at risk of losing contracts as they cannot access Facebook nowadays and the alternative of a virtual private network (VPN) for bypassing local restrictions is not suitable for professional speedy tasks, they added.

It is not only ICT professionals or freelancers but also corporate houses, be it local or multinationals; exporters or importers are facing severe troubles in carrying out their day-to-day work without adequate internet speed.

International buyers and brands at a meeting with BGMEA on Monday said the slow internet speed is hindering their operations, as they are unable to attach documents for order confirmations and submit necessary paperwork for shipment and payments.

Starting with a student protest for quota reform in government job recruitment, followed by violence, Bangladesh went completely disconnected online at 9pm on 18 July with a cable broadband shutdown that followed a mobile internet cut earlier on the day.

State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak on 18 July said the government had to cut off mobile internet to prevent violence provoked by social media content.

However, later he blamed the violent devastation caused to some installations, including a few internet infrastructure and fibre optic cables, for the entire internet blackout.

Entrepreneurs like Hamiduzzaman said the industry needs three things to survive and thrive —recognition as an emergency service, exclusive internet connections and a clear trustworthy announcement of no internet restriction in any circumstances.