The government's ambition for a 'Digital Bangladesh' doesn't match its policies, relevant laws, and rules and regulations designed for the telecom industry, said AMTOB, an association of mobile operators.
Telecom industry is considered to be playing a very important role in facilitating the digitalisation of the country.
Replying to recent reports on Bangladesh's low-internet speed, the association at a virtual press briefing on Thursday said if ecosystems were not synchronised and improved accordingly in providing mobile services, the quality of services could not be improved by developing digital infrastructure alone.
The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh also claimed that investment in the mobile service sector had been steadily declining in the country for the past five years due to an unfavourable business environment.
Rational tax policy, favourable business environment and holistic ecosystem are some of the key areas that the government needs to focus to improve the sector, the association observed.
Other important issues that the association thinks the government should give due importance are defragmentation of mobile network operators' licence, law and policy reformation, and spectrum allocation with rational pricing.
"If these issues are addressed properly, our MNO's [mobile network operators] services will be comparable to those of Europe and America," said retired Brigadier General SM Farhad, secretary general of AMTOB, while speaking at the briefing.
Bangladesh has stepped down further behind in terms of mobile internet speed, ranking 135th out of 137 countries in June last, according to a report of Ookla, a global platform that works with the speed and comparative picture of the internet.
The country was only ahead of Afghanistan and Venezuela on the list, according to the Ookla report.
At the press briefing, Mr Farhad quoted the prime minister's ICT adviser as saying that mobile network services in Bangladesh were comparatively better than in Europe.
And in order to improve the current situation, coordination among the service providers is also important, he observed.
At the briefing, Grameenphone's Head of Public and Regulatory Affairs Hossain Sadat and Robi's Head of Corporate Affairs Shahed Alam questioned the drive test of Ookla.
They also drew the attention of the government to the development of the business environment, existing barriers to network expansion, policies, MNO licences, wave allocation and exchange, etc.
They said that the position of Bangladesh would rise only if some small demands are met.
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