About 100 million rural people in Bangladesh are going to get high-speed internet access by the end of this year.
The Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), under the Department of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), undertook the Info Sarkar-3 project in 2016 to provide 2,600 broadband internet services at the Union Parishad level, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a Facebook post on Sunday, reports UNB.
According to the project’s progress report, the broadband network is being set up in 2,600 unions under 448 upazilas of 63 districts.
It will help eliminate discrimination between urban and rural areas and the benefits of digital technology will be easily available in rural areas, the ministry said.
According to a latest study, 54 per cent rural households in Bangladesh do not have access to internet and experts fear that ‘digital divide’ could hinder the e-governance progress.
Research findings unveiled on Sept 13 show that 59 per cent of rural households do not have access to a smartphone and 49 per cent have no access to computers.
The study, carried out by Brac Institute of Governance and Development, surveyed 6,500 rural households to develop a Digital Literacy Index that illustrates the current state of digital literacy in rural Bangladesh.