Home ›› 17 Jul 2020 ›› World Biz
Despite the number of people working from home (WFH) during the Covid-19 pandemic zoomed up encouragingly, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Dhaka city have been facing fall in the number of customers in April and May frustratingly.
The coronavirus pandemic has led many of the broadband ISPs to either shut down their businesses or to sell their facilities to others as either their bills are defaulted, connections discontinued, device supply exhausted or VAT increased and the bandwidth prices hiked.
According to the data of Internet Service Providers’ Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB), as many as 25 lakh internet connections were cancelled only in the capital during the lockdown.
Internet Service Providers said they were denied of any incentive package despite providing internet services during the pandemic in accordance with the government-declared emergency service.
It has been learnt that the usage of Internet has increased by 30% as people are mostly staying at home to avoid the risks of coronavirus infection, but the number of customers has fallen by 30-35%.
Talking to The Business Post, many of the broadband internet providers said they designed internet packages in such a fashion that the connections are given four to five times speedy bandwidth at daytime in comparison with the night, to balance the amount of data consumption. But, since the beginning of the lockdown, most of the users are remaining active online nearly 24 hours a day, resulting in more data consumption. A large number of offices and educational institutions are running online-only activities. Besides, a lot of the users also spending time on social media platforms or by playing online games, enjoying entertaining contents on YouTube and other streaming service platforms.
Terming the high usage of data, a ‘dilemma’, broadband internet service provider Exord-Online’s chief technical officer Sabbir Ahmed told The Business Post that many are thinking that ISPs are enjoying a more profitable season; but that isn’t right. “Lakhs of Dhaka residents have left the city since the beginning of coronavirus lockdown. Over 400 of our customers haven’t paid the bills yet and we have faced the same problem in May-June as well,” he said.
During the lockdown, many of the new customers have cancelled their subscriptions after using those for five to six months, adding loss to the providers.
Deep down, many of the customers hadn’t even returned the costly devices they were given by the providers, said Sabbir.
Many of the Internet Service Providers have said that they are counting extra expenses for accommodation, salary and other facilities for their employees in compensation as the number of their staff also has decreased due to the pandemic.
Alamgir Hossain, the owner of ISP ‘Digital Communication’, told The Business Post that he has lost around 500-600 out of 2000 connections as most of his customers are either bachelors or students who left Dhaka during the lockdown. Besides, many of the customers haven’t paid bills due to the shutdown of their business centres.
He said the government may consider reducing the VAT imposed on ISP in compensation for their loss.
On the contrary, the demand for the internet has increased as well. Many of the residents who had no internet facilities before are now asking for a connection to do office works from home and set children to online classes.
The internet service providers said now it’s very difficult for them to import the devices used in the installation of a new connection, due to the restricted movement caused by coronavirus pandemic. Prices of the devices also have been more than doubled, adding further difficulties.
ISPAB President MA Hakim told The Business Post though they have sustained decline in subscription base but continued full-fledged service during the lockdown as the government declared internet as an emergency service.
He said the expense of the internet package has almost doubled due to the high consumption habit of customers as most of the homes are getting high-speed internet.
Service cost has become several times higher as well. “When the staff are sent to home service, they need to provide with PPE and hand sanitizers and Uber or CNG services instead of public transport to ensure safety,” said MA Hakim.
“As Internet bills for May and June of almost 70-75% of corporate offices are unpaid, many of the subscribers have even disagreed to pay for the two months saying that they didn’t use the internet as their offices were closed, causing huge loss to us as we brought the bandwidth only after paying bills,” he added.
However, despite the losses in business and rejection from the government for incentives, the ISPAB president said he is hopeful that their business will come back to track once the coronavirus situation is over. The government is also now passing a difficult time against the pandemic, he added.
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