Bangladesh enters 4G era on Feb 19

[Tanveer666]

Chittagong, 60km away from city.
ISP is dozeinternet

How much did it cost you to get the fiber connection there?

 

[asgur]

How much did it cost you to get the fiber connection there?

I just brought my connection from our local bazar.
It cost me 5000tk to get this line from 1km away from Bazar to my house with full setup including wifi router.

What i have heard so far is that it cost them around 5,00,000tk to bring that line from city to our local bazar.
Not sure how true is that though.

 

[Tanveer666]

I just brought my connection from our local bazar.
It cost me 5000tk to get this line from 1km away from Bazar to my house with full setup including wifi router.

What i have heard so far is that it cost them around 5,00,000tk to bring that line from city to our local bazar.
Not sure how true is that though.

i've heard many ISP's to complain complain about the cost. something to do with high fees of NTTN operators.

 

[bête noire]

Chittagong, 60km away from city.
ISP is dozeinternet

I had 5.5 mb/s at 850tk/month in Moahmmadpur. I had to negotiate for 20 to 30 seconds though. It should be even cheaper now than when I got it, prices went down or speed went up every few months with new price structures. We had way too many broadband service providers in one area.

 

[Nilgiri]

1. Neither does india, i might add. But it is true that we are very late to the electroics manufacturing 'party' . Only recently we have started to assemble/manufacture (whatever suits you) so, wish us luck, i guess?

Yes all achievements in the sector are to be commended and we must wish all in the region the best of luck.

If we all stay humble, compare strictly the apples to apples (so we can learn who is behind and ahead on whatever and why and what to do), rather than do apples to oranges just to feel better about something....80%+ of the animosity in this subforum will evaporate.

It really took so much from certain members here to turn me "against" BD...a massive sustained effort by them...a real pity. I could have been quite a good positive ally for BD economy in this subforum, if you only know the good things I talk about on it with my BD friends outside this forum.

BTW, hopefully BD govt does not impose crazy tariffs/duties on this fledgling effort like it did in other things (like automobile assembly).

 

[Centaur]

I had 5.5 mb/s at 850tk/month in Moahmmadpur

Oh man I am just jealous lol. In Dhaka broadband is really cheap comparing other parts of bangladesh.
Maybs in Chittagong city area too?

 

[Tanveer666]

Yes all achievements in the sector are to be commended and we must wish all in the region the best of luck.

If we all stay humble, compare strictly the apples to apples (so we can learn who is behind and ahead on whatever and why and what to do), rather than do apples to oranges just to feel better about something....80%+ of the animosity in this subforum will evaporate.

It really took so much from certain members here to turn me "against" BD...a massive sustained effort by them...a real pity. I could have been quite a good positive ally for BD economy in this subforum, if you only know the good things I talk about on it with my BD friends outside this forum.

BTW, hopefully BD govt does not impose crazy tariffs/duties on this fledgling effort like it did in other things (like automobile assembly).

Got an links pertaining to that piece of news?

But you're right, we musn't belittle the achievement of others when comparing with our own, just for the sake of it. I don't see why we can't be civil and be respectful when criticizing others

 

[Nilgiri]

Got an links pertaining to that piece of news?

But you're right, we musn't belittle the achievement of others when comparing with our own, just for the sake of it. I don't see why we can't be civil and be respectful when criticizing others

http://www.thedailystar.net/business/local-car-assembly-struck-duty-hike-1422664

http://www.thedailystar.net/business/bike-assemblers-face-bumpy-ride-duty-hike-1425268

Someone told me they didn't go through with the proposed hikes on SD (I'm not sure, you can look it up).....but the current level already is simply astonishing for such a new industry.

60% SD on CKU (even 20% for motorcycles - ramped up to 45% proposed) means effectively somewhere around 100% final duty (when you count in all other import tariffs and other extra duties and general overhead the govt imposes I heard from someone in the know) and like 50% for 2 wheelers. This is something where literally every % counts esp in crowded competitive world marketplace.

This means its completely economically unsustainable to scale up esp given the additional capex needed later in cycle (for base component fabrication which needs capital goods flow and strong liability assurances)....because you are extracting this much from the margin right now....so whats the point basically.

I remember in India back when maruti etc first started, MSME base in the sector was limited (just bohemian corollaries to the ambassador and FIAT models), so Indira Gandhi (and then her son) ensured there was low as possible tariffs and duties on imported parts on advice from panel of industrialists of that time (Tata, Birla etc) in addition to how Suzuki proposed its end of the investment and gestation etc. The idea is to have a good window of 10 - 20 years where CKU and such is as low as possible to develop the human capital needed in assembly....this then gets grandfathered in (i.e an attractive human capital subsidy in effect) when rolling capex (and then you target tax holidays and incentives there at the right time) becomes more feasible (from the MSME organic growth and jobs votebank) and you can then bump up CKU duties (to then deal with the more niche industry like luxury cars that operate that way long term). This was lifted out of playbook on how Koreans also did it w.r.t Hyundai as well initially.

It leads me to suspect some ppl in BD govt/industry are profiting big (short and mid term) from the current system (either directly by the SD money or by preventing new labour vote banks outside RMG), to detriment of their industry long term. I mean you can get solid 10k chunks of local assembly capacity for all kinds of vehicles easily by having the right policies and low duty environment, that turn to golden egg 10 - 20 years later....but instead this SD regimen prevails and no one is interested....and why would they be? In the end BD industrial capacity and common person suffers.....because of the opportunity that is lost.

@BDforever @Mage @Joe Shearer @bluesky @UKBengali

 

[Tanveer666]

some ppl in BD govt/industry are profiting big

Undeniably, that seems to be the case. Now that i think about it, i do recall reading about it last year, and the 'rationale' for this tax hike was probably something about increasing traffic jam due to the higher number of vehicles on the road. (which is actually somewhat of a valid point)

This leads me to speculate, why do we not provide very attractive tax rates for them (coupled with our relatively low labour costs) to manufacture/assemble their vehicles here and export it to other countries?

what are the potential downsides of this?

 

[ebr77]

My country has 100% literacy rate.. and soon will be introducing 5G
but you should enjoy the increased data transfer rate of 4G ...quite an upgrade from 3G.


I welcomed your country's entry into the prestigious 4G ...

which operator is best in pakistan? telenor or zong /other for internet connectivity and network coverage?

 

[war&peace]

which operator is best in pakistan? telenor or zong /other for internet connectivity and network coverage?

Depends on what do you want but all offer 4G service. When I visited Pakistan last year, I used Zong and it was good.

 

[ebr77]

Depends on what do you want but all offer 4G service. When I visited Pakistan last year, I used Zong and it was good.

don't ever take telenor. it sucks even in ISD

 

[war&peace]

don't ever take telenor. it sucks even in ISD

Okay..

 

[Nilgiri]

Undeniably, that seems to be the case. Now that i think about it, i do recall reading about it last year, and the 'rationale' for this tax hike was probably something about increasing traffic jam due to the higher number of vehicles on the road. (which is actually somewhat of a valid point)

This leads me to speculate, why do we not provide very attractive tax rates for them (coupled with our relatively low labour costs) to manufacture/assemble their vehicles here and export it to other countries?

what are the potential downsides of this?

Yes you answered your own question. If rationale is to limit car ownership, it makes zero sense given the export option foregone (esp given you can impose requirements on parking, domestic selling only etc). In fact a huge amount of Indian production is exported now.

So it makes no sense to tax raw production itself....if you want to limit domestic sales, can just add the tax in final showroom etc....or at some auction intermediary stage like Singapore does with COE.

There are no potential downsides in removing SD and putting brakes on consumption through other means (with congestion argument till infra improved etc) through end-client taxes/limits/quotas etc....it will create the jobs and expertise to help grow industry sustainably....and even some exports for sure.

So definitely something is afoot in BD govt through the method they have chosen to tax production itself.