Option for state interception kept in guidelines for Starlink-like services
All user traffic must be routed through local gateways
Highlights
- NGSO satellite operators must enable lawful interception
- Operators to receive 10-year licenses with 5-year service commitment
- Early termination without justification will forfeit $25m deposit
- Partnerships with local satellite companies provide 25% fee reduction
- Operators prohibited from offering Direct to Home or broadcasting services
- They may offer IoT, machine-to-machine, and earth station services
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on Wednesday (26 March) published its final guidelines to welcome Starlink-like satellite internet service providers, including the scope for the state to intercept internet content, similar to those in mobile and fibre-based broadband networks.
All the internet traffic of each of the user terminals within Bangladesh must be through local gateways, according to the "Regulatory and Licensing Guidelines for Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) Satellite Services Operator in Bangladesh."
Operators like Starlink must ensure their systems are equipped for lawful interception in compliance with regulatory requirements, the guidelines state.
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NGSO satellite operators will be granted 10-year licences, with a mandatory five-year service commitment. Early exit without sufficient justification may result in the forfeiture of the $25 million security deposit and additional penalties.
However, operators partnering with a local satellite company and an international internet gateway will receive a 25% reduction in fees, as per the guidelines.
Starlink or any other NGSO satellite operator will not be allowed to provide direct to home (DTH) services like Akash or broadcasting services being provided by the Bangladesh Satellite Company or any international mobile telecom services.
They will, however, be allowed to provide internet of things, machine-to-machine communication services, earth station in motion services, backhaul services and various others with regulatory permission alongside their primary job to provide high quality broadband internet services.
Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus in February urged Starlink founder Elon Musk to visit Bangladesh and launch the much discussed internet service in three months.
Without the limitations of mobile and fibre based broadband internet, Starlink is expected to bring about a remarkable change in the country's internet landscape as it will remove spatial barriers.
A recent test run in the capital revealed that Starlink provided download speed of over 200 Megabyte per second (Mbps), which was consistent above 20 Mbps for uploading.
Starlink is partnering with various Bangladeshi companies for different services, including construction of their earth stations, data centre and bandwidth services alongside distribution of its customer terminals and other relevant devices and internet packages.
Starlink, still the global lone player in its industry, is operating in around a hundred countries.
Around 7,000 of its NGSO satellites continuously surround the earth above 500km. The company sends bandwidth from any of its relevant earth stations to the satellites that resend the data to the small user terminals, making internet accessible from any corner of the earth.
Regulations in different countries, however, decide how they want the services to run.
Chief Adviser's Special Assistant Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb recently warned Bangladesh's mobile and fibre-based internet providers about enhancing their quality of services alongside reducing prices as a large group of internet users might opt for Starlink for a stable, high speed internet even if it costs higher.
Starlink is tailoring its pricing for markets based on the socioeconomic context of countries.
For instance, in Bhutan it is charging nearly Tk50,000 for terminal kits and a monthly bill of around Tk6,000 for a 23-110 Mbps unlimited internet connection.
Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb said the remote areas will see a significant socio-economic impact of Starlink, while freelancers, professional users and businesses will also get benefits from Starlink.
With pricing equal to that in Bhutan, Starlink may attract over half a million businesses and even more residential users in the first two years, offering a billion dollar market in Bangladesh for Elon Musk's company SpaceX, anticipates Md Emdadul Hoque, president of Internet Service Providers' Association of Bangladesh.
