South Asian Business news and information

SouthAsiaBiz: When was aamra networks set up? How many employees did you have that time and how many now?
 Russell T. Ahmed: You know that the former name of aamra networks limited was Global Online Limited. It was set up in 1997 and we had 10 employees at that time. Now, we have 120 permanent employees along with some contractual employees.
 
SouthAsiaBiz: So, I can see that you have seen 10 times growth in a decade while some ISPs got shut down in Bangladesh. What do you think is the main reason behind your success?
 Russell T. Ahmed: We tried to be visionary from the start and have always worked on developing quality service and products for the betterment of the consumers. When it comes to human resources, we always tried to recruit the best workers and create good environment for them. We also do not compromise on business ethics. We continuously challenged ourselves. Since we work with corporate clients only, we spend a good portion of our budget on Research and Development (R&D) to discover and/or innovate solutions to serve the consumers better. We are considered to be the market leader but we are not satisfied with it. We want continuous improvement and become bigger and better so that we can take Bangladesh forward.

 
SouthAsiaBiz: You are the general secretary of Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB). Recently, government of Bangladesh decreased the price of bandwidth significantly. We hear that there might be another bandwidth price reduction in the next few months. How do you see this matter?
 
Russell T. Ahmed: I thank the government of Bangladesh for the bandwidth price reduction but I think there should be more reduction in the price as this reduction is not enough as the main goal of the government is to ensure growth in the use of Internet.
 I think the government wants to spread Internet across the country rapidly. We, at ISPAB, have the same goal. We also wish that every family in Bangladesh gets the blessing of Internet. However, reducing the price of bandwidth only cannot ensure that Internet will reach from door to door in Bangladesh. Certain other conditions have to be met too.
 
SouthAsiaBiz: What other factors?
 Russell T. Ahmed: For example, the infrastructure of the country has to be improved. If we want to take Internet to every doorstep then we have to take the cable through the roads. For that, the condition of the roads has to be improved, which we can see in the developed countries, where fiber optic cable has been taken to the home of the ordinary people.
 You know that people want quality Internet service. However, for ensuring quality service for the home users, the ISPs have to invest a lot in equipments. Unfortunately, the ISPs have to pay nearly 45% tax for importing networking and internet equipments. The irony is that there is no tax on importing computer accessories. So, most home users cannot afford Internet equipments and big ISPs are not interested to provide Internet service for home users since connectivity cost (for better quality service) becomes very high.
 We also need to get connected with the second submarine cable. There should be a strong intranet backbone within the country. This will help the development of local contents/applications for Internet. These factors would ensure the increase of Internet penetration in Bangladesh in different level.

Again, Government has to facilitate Internet applications in order to penetrate Internet among the mass people. Look, we have Internet but we can't do much with this unless few basics i.e. mailing, browsing, chatting etc. E-commerce is a major role player for this industry growth which we can't do due to regulations. We can't even transact using local credit cards on the net. On the other hand, IP Telephony is a major tool to popularize Internet. This application has the ability to take Internet among the sub-urban, villagers also. The bar from IP telephony has to be removed very very soon.
The recent price reduction of Submarine Bandwidth, I feel, should have been discussed with major stake holders (90% + BTTB Bandwidth comsumed by ISPs) before going for implementation. After the recent price reduction, ISPs wanted to upgrade Backbone capacity to offer more Bandwidth to their customers but BTTB was not ready to provide this new expected bandwidth to the ISPs. As a result the goal of more Internet penetration is not meeting. And also, it is causing confusion among our subscribers that, why we can't give more speed to our customers after price reduction.