Second Submarine Cable Coming by 2014 In Bangladesh

Second Submarine Cable Coming by 2014 In Bangladesh

Bangladesh will be connected to its second submarine cable in 2014.



The state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited is preparing to complete all related work within Dec 2014, the company's director Manwar Hossain told bdnews24.com on Sunday.

The telecom ministry recently issued instructions to BSCCL on how it should collect the funds for this project.

The company is in charge of the only submarine cable connecting Bangladesh to the world, a cable consortium of 16 countries, the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4 or SEA-ME-WE 4.

In 2014, Bangladesh will be connected to SEA-ME-WE 5.

Manwar Hossain said telecommunications and internet connectivity gets hampered if the SEA-ME-WE 4 suffers any damage.

"Once SEA-ME-WE 5 is connected, there will be no such trouble," he said.

On Oct 14 in Singapore last year, BSCCL had held a meeting with possible partners to lay the SEA-ME-WE 5, officials said.

They said primarily six companies had signed MoUs to participate in the consortium. The new cable would use the latest 100G technology.

They said there was a possibility that the cable would extend to Myanmar as well, whereby Bangladesh would have a smaller share of maintenance cost.

The telecom ministry has laid down three conditions for raising funds for the project, Manwar said.

"The government will not fund the project nor provide any bank guarantees, no loans can be taken from internal sources," he said.

"The project will cost us about Tk 4.5 billion. BSCCL can provide Tk 2.5 billion from its own fund, and the rest can be raised from the share market," he added.

Besides, funds can also be acquired from public-private partnership and low-interest loans from Islamic Development Bank or International Monetary Fund.

Survey On Internet Users In Dhaka

A survey is going to be conducted on the internet users in Dhaka by bytesforall.com.
The number internet user in Dhaka is getting higher day by day. South Asian research firm Bytes for All Initiative is going to conduct a survey on the social status analysis as long as the types of internet use of the Internet users in Dhaka. Now the first level survey for this research is going to be conducted. Any internet user from Dhaka are requested to take part in that survey.

The users are requested to visit the following link to take part:
http://www.bytesforallinitiative.net/internetusagedhaka/index.php?sid=72945&lang=en

Mobile Operator Internet Speed In Bangladesh

i've been using grameenphone unlimited edge service for last 1 year using
two sets motorola v3i(gprs class 1o)and nokia 5700(edge class 32).location
eskaton garden,near holy family hospital.the highest downloading speed i ever
got with motorola is 5.2 KBps and with nokia 14 KBps using opera browser as the
download manager.as now i use the nokia set most of the time,the average speed i
get this days is between 3-5KBps.i've used flashget too and the speed does not
differ much.it takes almost exact same time to download a thing by opera or
flashget
this speed seems too low as i pay a thousand excluding vat to
grameenphone every month and some people from different locations get even a lot
better speed.is there anything that can be done to increase the downloading
speed NOT changing my location?



Well, I should include few more general test reports here. You will get your answer from test3. Thanks for your question :-)

Test1:
Area: Rampura
Device: Sony Ericsson GC89
Connection: GP EDGE unlimited

I am now using Grameen phone unlimited internet. I use Sony Ericsson GC89 EDGE modem. And i live in Rampura. I get average 15-17 KBPS (kilobyte). It varies with time. Because in the day time I get 13-15 KBPS (kilobyte).


Test2:
Area: Rampura
Device: Nokia 3110 classic Made in Hungary
Connection: GP EDGE unlimited

We've used Nokia 3110 classic Made in Hungary at my home to test the internet speed. And it was as good as I usually get using GC89 (average ~17KBPS)

Test3:
Area: Boxibazar, Old Dhaka
Device: Nokia 3110 classic Made in Hungary
Connection: GP EDGE unlimited and Warid unlimited

I went to Boxibazaar (Behind Dhaka university and BUET area) and used Same Nokia 3110 classic made in Hungary. There both the download and upload speed using GP was terrible and shocking!!! I didn't believe my friend who told me that he didn't get more than 4 KBPS anytime.And the line was not stable. My friend contacted GP and they told him that they have huge number of GP internet user in that area. So, they can do nothing to increase the speed. It seems the total bandwidth for a tower or area is fixed. So, where internet users are more there you will get less speed.

This number of users are data service users, not the voice user. You know data service means GPRS or EDGE which no connection with the voice service (calling). So, we should calculate users based on who are using data service.

Warid:
And there Warid internet was same as ~5.5 KBPS and stable. It seems Warid internet is stable everywhere. Of course constant ~5.5 KBPS is not bad (at least for those among us who has very bad experience with dial up or ISP provided internet)

Test4:
Area: Uttara
Device: Nokia 3110 classic Made by Nokia
Connection: GP EDGE unlimited

My another friend is using unlimited internet by 3110 classic (Made by Nokia) in Uttara. He gets more than 15 KBPS. So, now it seems "Made by Nokia" and "Made in Finland" doesn't differ in quality. Only it differes in our brain :-)

Test5:
Area: Banani
Device: Nokia 3110 classic Made by Nokia
Connection: GP EDGE unlimited

We have used Nokia 3110 classic (Made by Nokia) in Banani area. There we also got more than ~15KBPS on average.


Now, I have told you before, my tests are from general users point of view. I didn't test in any professional lab using highly efficient equipments. And the data transfer over wireless depends on many many variables that I didn't have considered during my tests. If anyone did then please share your reports with us.

Have a nice day.

Another Full Test By My Friend

Burn in test 001: Mobile internet
We three friends (teen_goenda) were frustrated with so called Deshi broadband services. We thought to use unlimited internet provided by Mobile operators in our country. So, we were determined to compare the internet browsing speed and download speed and choose the perfect connection fo us. We have used Grameen phone and Warid Telecom unlimited connection to test and compare their internet speed.


Grameen vs. Warid:
At the very beginning we must say Warid never tried to convince us that they had EDGE in all over Dhaka city. Rather when we contacted Warid help desk, they told us that they had only testing version of EDGE in Gulshan and Bonani. One the other hand Grameen phone help desk told us that they had EDGE tower all over the Dhaka city.



GPRS vs. EDGE:
Now theoretically GPRS class 10 has download speed of 36-48 kbps (kilo bit per second) or 4-6 KBPS (kilo byte per second).

On the other hand EDGE class 10 has download speed of 236-247 kbps or (29.5 KBPS- 30.9 KBPS)


Tools:
We have used the following tools for this test-
Nokia 6230i (original Made in Finland) - EDGE class 10 supported

Sony ericsson GC89 EDGE modem -EDGE class 10 supported (price ~6,500 tk)

Warid post paid sim with unlimited internet connection. (1000/= monthly)

Grameen post paid sim with unlimited internet connection (1000/= monthly)

Downloader: Flashget 1.71 . We tried to download a 240MB file with resume support.

Browser: Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) to measure the browsing speed.

Location:Rampura.

Measurement unit:
For simplicity we have used kbps or kilobit per second as standard unit of measurement. We know that 8 kilo bit = 1 Kilo byte.



Test reports from others:
We took it our friends tests and opinions under consideration who had experience using mobile internet of all the mobile companies.

Friend1:
Mobile phone: Nokia N73 "Made by Nokia"

Operator: Grameen phone unlimited internet connection.
Location: Bonani

Data rate: Maximum 88 kbps , minimum 24kbps and average 56-60 kbps.


Friend2:

Mobile phone: Chinese GPRS USB modem bought from IDB by 6,000 tk one and half years ago.
Operator: Grameen phone Unlimited conneciton.
Location: Mohammodpur
Data rate: Maximum 24kbps , minimum 500bit per second and average 12 kbps.


Friend3:


Mobile phone: Chinese USB EDGE modem. Bought from IDB by 11,000 tk one years ago.
Operator: Grameen phone EDGE connection.
Location: Bashabo
Data rate: Maximum 227 kbps, minimum 120 kbps and average 160 kbps.


Report & calculation:
Form the experiment we observe that-
Grameen phone download speed is faster than Warid telecom .

Grameen phone Browsing is same or sometimes a bit poorer than Warid telecom.

Nokia original Made in Finland provides the best performance among all the mobile phones.

"Made by Nokia" (India and China made and sold by Nokia center) phones shows poorer internet performance in the same test.

Nokia (Made in Finland) also shows better performance in download (download speed almost double) than dedicated PCMCIA DGE modem Sony Ericsson GC89.

Conclusion:
Nokia (Made in Finland) is the best for internet:
If you want to buy a cell phone for internet and want to browse smoothly and download Gigabytes of data, then try your best to get a Nokia "made in Finland" EDGE class 10 or higher supported phone. We know from our market survey that "Made in Finland sets" are very rare in the market. If you fail to get a Finland set then go for the Hungary set. We can tell you for sure that Hungary sets shows better performance than "Made by Nokia" India or China made sets.



Dedicated modem only for your laptop:
Better not to go for Sony Ericsson GC89 or other Chinese modems if you seek highest download speed. However you may not like to carry a phone connected to a laptop for internet. Also if you are on move then The phones power will go down very quickly. So, in that case you can use GC89 or Sony ericsson PC300 (if available in the market). Let me remind you, GC89 has no voice. So, you can't call or receive call using that modem. But you can send and receive sms though.


Avoid Chinese modems:
Chinese modems have very unstable and poorer performance of all. Only exceptional one Chinese USB modem that one of our friends bought from IDB shows the top performance equivalent to the original finland Nokia mobiles. But we can't tell you for sure exactly which one that modem is. Because we didn't get that modem in the market few months later. However we never recommend those fancy modems. Also you can buy an EDGE class 10 Hungary made Nokia in the same price of those Chinese EDGE modems.


DANGER:NEVER EVER BUY A GPRS MODEM OF ANY BRAND OR NON BRAND. BECAUSE GPRS MODEMS ARE CAPABLE OF PROVIDING HIGHEST 48 KILOBIT PER SECOND. PRCATICALLY WE GOT 24-32 KBPS.


Finally, we say in this way- if you are download freak and/or need 10GB or more data per month and use internet in a fixed place (at home or office etc) then always better to buy a Nokia Made in Finland or Hungary sets with EDGE class 10 support. If you have a laptop and want to use internet on move then go for the PCMCIA sony ericsson GC89 EDGE modem. Avoid buying "Made by Nokia" sets for hardcore internet use. No to any GPRS modem or Chinese EDGE modem.

Disclaimer:
Our research was not influenced by anyone or any company. We did these tests for choosing the best setup to use internet. We thought the test result may help others, so we publish this result in the net. Our test was very limited, because we had only used 4/5 types of mobiles phones and only two mobile phone companies. But people use lots of different mobile phones from different companies. Also there are 5 mobile operators in our country. More over the internet speed varies time to time and place to place. We alone can not test all those setups since we are not any commercial survey company.

So we hope and encourage you all to test your internet speed in different places in different times and using different mobile phones. Publish your own test results in here in this blog comment. Your feedback and sharing experiences will help others to choose the right stuff for themselves.

Offline access soon for Gmail, Google Calendar

Google doesn't deny that it's working on bringing offline access to two major Web applications, Gmail and Calendar, but a sign emerged Thursday that the feature--which would be a major expansion of the applications' utility and competitive threat--is due soon.

"Gears on Gmail and Calendar in approximately 6 weeks. Just had a preview at Google offices. Not sure if it is Google Enterprise only," said Andrew Fogg, chief marketing and strategy officer for Web 2.0 consultancy Kusiri, in a Twitter post Thursday.

Gears, formerly called Google Gears, is an open-source extension for Firefox and Internet Explorer now and Safari and Opera later that, among other things, lets Web browsers store and use data even while offline. That can make Web applications vastly more useful and a more viable replacement for PC-based software such as Microsoft Outlook. With Gears, Google today offers offline editing for its word processing service and offline viewing of its spreadsheet and presentation service.



A view from 2007 that indicated Google work on offline access to Google Calendar.
(Credit: Shared under Creative Commons by Noticias-TIC)


Google Apps competes with Microsoft's Outlook-Exchange combination as well as with many other online and offline applications, including Yahoo's online e-mail application, Zimbra, which already offers offline access to e-mail.

Gmail has won plaudits from some users--I like it myself--but today they can't use it directly unless they're connected to a network, and I spend a lot of time working where there's no access. Of course, with Google's free use of IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol), software such as Mozilla's Thunderbird also can be used to handle e-mail while offline, so it's not as if Gmail users are helpless without a network connection.

Customers who pay $50 per year per user for Google Apps Premier Edition get more storage space, better technical support, and other features. Personally, I'd be surprised if Google restricted offline access only to those customers, in particular because offline access imposes a burden on the local PC, not Google's data centers, and makes the service and Google's cloud computing argument stronger. But it could be an opportunity to sell more subscriptions.

Just yesterday I asked Google about offline access for Gmail and Calendar and they gave me their usual noncommittal reply that more or less indicates it's in the works.

Two tricky things about Gears is deciding what data to cache locally on a computer and how to synchronize data when a network connection is restored, especially with group-edited content such as documents or calendars. There are hints how Google might go about getting around one challenge, though; according to the Google Operating System blog, some users saw a "Use Google Calendar Offline" note last year that said Gears would let a user view and edit the next three months of a calendar.

Fogg also twittered another potentially useful extension of the Google Apps service is under way, support for technology called SyncML that would make it easier to synchronize Gmail contacts with the address books of mobile devices. Newer versions of SyncML also support "push e-mail," which means a mobile device automatically gets new e-mail without having to be commanded to check.

"SyncML for Google contacts next month. Soocial (sic) watchout. My guess: its related to the sync that they worked on with Apple for 3G iPhone," Fogg said in the Twitter post.

Update 11:02 a.m. PDT: Google offered an official but vague comment on the Gears work in Calendar and Gmail: "We're working on Gears-enabling a number of our products, but we don't have a specific timeline to announce."

Microsoft Tops $60 Billion in Annual Revenue

Microsoft Thursday announced it has topped US$60 billion in yearly revenue for the first time in its history and posted a 25% year-over-year gain in net income for its fiscal year 2008.

The company also provided financial details of its offer to buy Yahoo's search business including a lump payment of $1 billion, a stock investment and on-going revenue sharing. (Read Editor Julie Bort's take on the revenue report.)

The fiscal 2008 revenue gain was an 18% increase over fiscal 2007, but it was with net income where the software giant showed a big increase from $14 billion in 2007 to $17.6 billion in 2008.

Microsoft also reported fiscal fourth quarter revenue of $15.84 billion, which was an 18% increase over the fourth quarter of 2007.

Microsoft's fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30.

Chris Liddel, Microsoft's CFO, also took time to make a statement on Microsoft's proposal to acquire Yahoo's search business. He said he would not take questions, but he did lay out some of the particulars of the offer, including paying Yahoo $1 billion for its search business, and making an equity investment in Yahoo by purchasing 3.9 billion shares of Yahoo stock at $19.50 per share.

He said the proposal also included a 10-year revenue guarantee totaling $19.5 billion to $26.5 billion. Liddel said the guarantees were not conditional on search queries but tied to Yahoo's home page performance. He said the deal did not include changes to Yahoo's governance.

"We continue to believe our proposal is a compelling one," he said.

The company attributed 2008 financial gains to increased demand for Office, server software, Xbox games and consoles, and even Vista, which has been drubbed by the media and found rough sailing on the corporate adoption front.

Microsoft said it has now sold 180 million Vista licenses. It did not report how many of those licenses may have been "downgraded" to XP by corporate users.

Fiscal 2008 was highlighted by shipment of Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, two of the infrastructure foundation pieces for its services strategy. SQL Server 2008, the third leg of the strategy, is expected to ship by the end of September (the first quarter of fiscal 2009).

The earnings report showed that the Client, Server and Tools and the Microsoft Business divisions were the only segments that did not show operating income losses for the quarter. For the year, those three divisions and the Entertainment and Devices division were the only ones to post positive operating income results, an indication that Microsoft continues to struggle in its newest businesses while relying on its historical cash cows and a Server and Tools business that has posted 24 straight quarters of double-digit growth.

"It was an outstanding year for the company," Liddel said during an earnings call with financial analysts and media. But he said he was not happy the results were not reflected in the company's stock price.

"Clearly we are disappointed that our strong financial results are not reflected in our share price because of general market turbulence combined with Microsoft specific issues including the uncertainty over the outcome of the Yahoo discussions," he said. Microsoft shares closed at $27.52 at the end of the day Thursday.

The report, however, was not all rosy. Microsoft continued to suffer in its Online Services Business, which is battling Google and others in online advertising and search. The division saw its operating income losses grow 100% for the fiscal year and 132% for the fourth quarter.

On the balance sheet for Microsoft, Client division revenue was $16.8 billion, up 13% over $14.9 billion in fiscal 2007. For the quarter, revenue growth was 15%, from $3.8 billion in fiscal fourth quarter 2007 to $4.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008. Microsoft attributed the increase to a 22% growth in revenue from commercial and retail licensing of Windows primarily from Enterprise Agreements.

The Server and Tools business revenue was $13 billion for fiscal 2008, an increase over $11.1 billion in fiscal 2007. For the quarter, revenue was up to $3.7 billion compared to $3 billion in the same quarter in 2007. The company said growth was primarily driven by volume licensing of Windows Server and SQL Server.

Microsoft Business revenue was $18.9 billion for fiscal 2008, a 15% increase over the $16.4 billion in fiscal 2007. For the quarter, revenue was $5.2 billion, a 14% increase over $4.6 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter 2007.

The $60 billion revenue figure for 2008 is but a stepping stone as Microsoft told financial analysts that the company is projecting revenue to hit between $67 and $68 billion in fiscal 2009.

Moves into areas such as online advertising, search, online services -- such as Online Exchange and Online SharePoint -- and virtualization are big initiatives for Microsoft in the coming year.

500 Illegal ISPs In Business In Bangladesh

Around 500 unauthorised Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are in business in the city and eating up the market share of the legal service providers, degenerating the quality of internet services for the home users.

So far the Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has not taken any measure to bring these unauthorised ISPs into the legal framework.

The BTRC officials said they are aware of the problem, adding that it may not be rational to stop all illegal ISPs right away. “It's a matter of thinking a way out of the problem,” they said.

Industry insiders said the non-licensed service providers are mainly young entrepreneurs who use very poor infrastructure, creating a bad impression of the overall industry.

"A reduction in the internet tariff is certainly a significant step to connect the mass. But the quality of service is also very important to reap the benefits of internet," said MA Salam, president of Internet Service Providers Association Bangladesh (ISPAB).

He said it is true that these unauthorised ISPs are taking the connections to the user's doorsteps. “But when the question of quality arises, customers put blame on overall industry for not having satisfactory speed or services,” he added.

A total of 70 authorised ISPs, out of 200 licensees, are operating mainly in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. The country's total internet home use subscription level is around 7.5 lakh, of which around 6 lakh connections are provided by unauthorised ISPs.

Industry insiders said authorised ISPs usually provide internet connection through fiber optic cable, modem cable or digital subscriber line by which subscribers can get good quality services. On the other hand, unauthorised ISPs usually connect their customers by low quality ethernet cables.

The unauthorised ISPs provide excessive connections from a single hub which slows the speed, said Azhar H Chowdhury, director of Grameen CyberNet Ltd.

He said, "We are not against the unauthorised ISPs. But the regulator should formulate a policy for them so that they are able to provide quality services to the customers."

Low quality internet service is not a new issue for the city's home users. In most cases customers get themselves connected from the nearest service providers without knowing their service quality.

"I have taken a connection from the nearest IT shop. But it takes at lest 10 minutes to open a website. Downloading something takes more than an hour,” said Al Mahmud, a service holder in Mohammadpur.

Like Mahmud, many home users in the city are now experiencing low quality internet services.

"No one, not even the regulators, takes responsibility for the low quality internet services," said ISPAB president. He said, "We repeatedly informed BTRC, pleading them to solve the issue. But they remained silent."