Friday, April 26, 2024
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said Bijoy has been made mandatory for all imported and locally manufactured android mobile phones as it is the only standardised Bangla keyboard recognised by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI).
"The direction was made in 2017 that smartphones must have Bangla standardised keyboard and Bijoy keyboard was approved by the BSTI as standard. No keyboard except the standardised one would be allowed", the minister told the Business Post
The manufacturers have recently been given Bijoy Android Package Kit (APK) for free to use, Jabbar added.
Bijoy keyboard is now available in android smartphones, in the future the keyboard will be applicable in IoS phones as well, said the minister.
On Friday, the BTRC issued an order requiring the installation of Bijoy software on all imported and locally produced Android handsets. It stated that no smartphones will be permitted to be marketed without the software.
The regulatory body has also sent letters to the president of the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association and concerned parties in this regard. It said that the Bijoy Android APK file will be provided by the spectrum department of BTRC free of charge.
The APK file has to be installed on mobile sets and shown to the commission before asking for permission to market the phones.
Ananda Computers, founded by Mustafa Jabbar, released the first edition of Bijoy Bangla keyboard on December 16, 1988.
Later in 2011, the second edition capable of running Unicode was incorporated. Subsequently, it became widely used Bangla writing software. Jabbar also received various awards for the development of the software.
