The government has decided to award a licence to Starlink, operated by American aerospace company SpaceX. Elon Musk's Starlink is a satellite internet constellation which provides broadband connections to people in over 60 countries.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has drafted guidelines for satellite internet service operators, permitting wholly owned foreign companies to obtain licences.
According to the guidelines, the licence will be valid for five years.
It adds that the licensee is authorised to provide the following NGSO satellite services: broadband internet services, intranet services (domestic data communications), Internet of Things and machine-to-machine communication, earth station in motion service, earth exploration satellite service, remote sensing/meteorological services and any other services approved by the BTRC.
The licensee must establish at least one gateway system within Bangladesh before commencing services.
The licensee must preserve internet protocol detail records, transaction detail records, call detail records (CDR), system logs or audit trails related to CDR changes and network traffic data for a period of one year for scrutiny or as directed by the commission or as required by the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre under the law.
Starlink, a global internet service provider, has been showing interest in doing business in Bangladesh for three years. Starlink is a subsidiary of Elon Musk's SpaceX, the world's top technology entrepreneur. While conventional internet services rely on telephone towers and submarine cables, Starlink offers internet services via artificial satellites. Due to this, the company has the ability to provide high-speed Internet services even in remote areas of the world.
In July last year, Starlink's technology was brought to Bangladesh and tested. At that time there was also a meeting of Starlink with the then ministers.
Recently, a delegation of Starlink held a meeting with Ashiq Chowdhury, Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA). The government is keen to license the satellite-based internet service providers.
