Upto 512 kbs wareless internet speed at Bangladesh

Zoom™ Ultra

Ultra is the new and upgraded package from Zoom™ high-speed wireless internet service that runs on state-of-the-art EV-DO technology, the evolution from CDMA 1X technology. You can experience download speeds of up to 512 kbps, and the Zoom™ Ultra connection enables you to access this high-speed internet by simply connecting to your laptop or desktop computer.

Zoom™ Ultra provides never-before internet speeds on the move, and plug-and-play service through a versatile USB interface. The high speeds facilitate a superior internet browsing experience with video streaming, video surveillance, and rich media content.

Currently the Zoom™ Ultra service is available in Motijheel, Dhanmondi, Banani, Gulshan, Baridhara, and Uttara areas of Dhaka city. Since the Ultra Modem is downward compatible with Citycell’s Zoom 1X network, it ensures connectivity throughout Bangladesh across 64 Districts.

Zoom™ Ultra data plans are designed to suit your specific needs. Products and devices are available at the three Citycell Customer Care Centres of Dhaka, Zoom Zone at Bashundhara City Shopping Complex, select Zoom™ Points of Dhaka city, and through our Sales hotline 011910SALES (01191072537) or email (sales@citycell.com). Our nationwide network of Customer Care Centres and Points are also equipped to provide after-sales service for your Zoom™ Ultra connection and device.

Reduce SIM tax & New handsets;Mobile operators said

The mobile industry in Bangladesh, which is still lagging at the bottom rung of tele-density in the region, is at the crossroads of growth where the huge untapped rural market beacons it. But the challenge is strong enough as the cost of owning a mobile set and connection is too prohibitive.The options to overcome the odds to bring about a revolutionary change in rural lifestyle in terms of internet use, telemedicine help and e-education are quite a few and some of them could be addressed through budgetary measures.Operators blamed the tax on SIM card as the major digital divide between the rural and urban areas. They said such tax is one of the major barriers to expanding their costly networks to the rural areas as these areas may not give a healthy return in terms of revenue like in urban areas.t is the time to go to the untapped rural areas, said Ahmed Mushfeq Anam, managing director of X-Fer Limited and representative of Nortel Networks Netas. Operators should take up strategy to share infrastructure among them to expand networks in rural areas so that investment returns come to their expected level, he added.

M Rafiqul Islam, joint secretary of the post and telecommunications ministry, assured the mobile phone operators of passing their appeals to the telecom minister.

Citycell’s special voice and internet service

Citycell recently signed an agreement with SQ Crystal Celsius Limited (SQCCL), one of the largest suppliers of the world to Marks and Spencer in knitwear.

Under the agreement SQCCL will enjoy specially designed telecommunication packages and customized solutions from Citycell. The corporate service is tailored to match specific requirements of the company to strengthen communication with all its stakeholders and improve its internal communication. SQCCL will also enjoy priority services from Citycell on both voice and data.Alan Robert Renton, General Manager of SQCCL and Dr. Anand Rajasingham, Head of Marketing of Citycell, signed the Agreement on behalf of their respective companies at a simple ceremony held at Citycell’s Head Office at Mohakhali, Dhaka.

A. H. M. Quamruzzaman, Finance Controller, Abdullah Al Mamun, Plant Manager of SQCCL, and Sania Mahmood, General Manager, Marketing Communications and Corporate Business, Kazi Jahirul Islam, Manager, Corporate Business and Md. Abdullah-Al-Mamun, Key Account Manager, Corporate Business of Citycell were also present at the ceremony.

SIM tax in Mobile phone operators

The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh on Sunday requested the prime minister to waive the SIM tax, expressing ‘disappointment’ at the proposal for tax being retained on SIM in the budget proposed for the 2009–2010 financial year.

The association of six mobile operators also claimed the SIM tax at Tk 800 for each new mobile connection subscription was the ‘biggest barrier’ to the growth of mobile industry in Bangladesh and the government’s revenue from SIM tax would drop further because of stagnated growth of the mobile industry.

They also resented imposition of 25 per cent import duty on mobile sets instead of the existing fixed rate of Tk 300 a set.

‘We are disappointed that the budget proposal announced on Thursday continued retaining the SIM tax at Tk 800 on each new connection of mobile subscription,’ said Zakiul Islam, president of the association and senior manager of Banglalink, at a briefing at the Sonargaon Hotel.

‘We request the prime minister and her government to kindly waive the SIM tax in view of development and digital Bangladesh,’ said Grameenphone corporate affairs chief Raihan Shamsi.

He said the government revenue from SIM tax was Tk 426 crore in the first quarter of 2008, but it dropped to Tk 147 crore in the first quarter in 2009 as operators withdrew subsidies in sales of SIMs after incurring losses. ‘This downward trend will continue if SIM tax is still in place,’ he claimed.

Slack sales in Mobile handsets at Bangladesh

Mobile handset makers yesterday anticipated a 10 percent slack sale, if the proposed 25 percent tax on each imported set remains unchanged in the final budget for the fiscal year 2009-10.

The new duty may prompt imports of the handsets through illegal channel, which ultimately lead to a huge revenue loss, they told a press conference in Dhaka yesterday.

"Mobile set price may increase 15 to 17 percent on imposition of the new duty," said Nowfel Anower, head of marketing of Nokia EA Limited.

Urging the government to reconsider the tariff, he said a specific amount of Tk 100 could be clamped on the import of each set.

Aktel sim is now 199 Tk

Mobile phone operator AKTel has offered prepaid SIM at Tk 199 as part of its 'Free Connection' campaign marking the company's 11th year of service in Bangladesh, according to a press statement.


Under the offer, the new prepaid subscribers of AKTel will get Tk 200 bonus talk-time with activation. They will instantly get Tk 50 and the rest Tk 150 will be delivered to them in equal amount over the next three months.

Every prepaid connection of AKTel is a standard connection with ISD and Economy ISD facility.

New prepaid customers of AKTel will also enjoy simple tariff plan of 68 paisa/min to any mobile round the clock.

Gemalto Expands Mobile Banking Availabilty

Gemalto ­says that it is planning to expand the availability of its mobile banking services to markets in South Asia. The firm has been working with India-based technology partner mChek since last September to offer mobile banking services with telecom operators in India and Sri Lanka. Tan Teck Lee, President of Gemalto Asia said: mChek has demonstrated an exceptional platform that is flexible and scalable for a broad range of mobile banking and payment applications. By leveraging Gemalto’s worldwide partnership programme, we can partner with mChek to better serve our customers be they telecom operators or subscribers. Together we aim to bring new levels of security and convenience beyond India and Sri Lanka into markets such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Award the 3G Licenses Urges Ericsson to Bangladesh

Ericsson has urged the Bangladeshi government to speed up the process to offer 3G licenses so that the mobile operators can tap the existing 3G phone user base in the country. “If the government releases appropriate spectrum for 3G, which is the proven global mainstream for the mobile broadband, then we are confident that it will contribute significantly to the country’s GDP (gross domestic prodcut) growth,” Arun Bansal, managing director of the


Ericsson Bangladesh, told the Reuters news agency.”It is estimated that there are over 6 million mobile internet users and already today 15 percent of the mobile handsets used in Bangladesh market are 3G enabled,” Bansal added.The regulator has delayed the award of 3G licenses several times, and they were last due to have been awarded a couple of months ago. A previous report by the GSMA had called on the regulator to issue the licenses by the 3rd quarter of last year.

Software Reviews:Firefox 3.5 coming at the end of june

While Mozilla is serving the first bits of Release Candidate 1 for the successor of Firefox 3.0, it is also focusing on having Firefox 3.5 finalized and available for download for end users by the end of this month. For the time being, Mozilla is serving Firefox 3.5 RC1 Build 2 as an update to the Beta testers that are already running earlier releases of the browser. Firefox 3.5 RC1 Build 2 started being delivered on June 16, 2009, and is also available as a standalone download for testers that want a taste of the close-to-final Firefox 3.5“Our 800,000+ Firefox 3.5 beta users will be receiving an update to the first Firefox 3.5 release candidate (3.5rc1build2) in order to continue to help us with daily testing and public feedback. This update contains bug fixes which will be included in the final release of Firefox 3.5, expected later this month. While Mozilla has not yet completed the quality assurance testing required before an official product release, this update is considered stable for daily browsing use and we appreciate your assistance in helping us test and evaluate this version of the release candidate,” revealed Mozilla's Nicole Loux (emphasis added).

Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox at Mozilla, also indicated that the end of June was the target ship date for Firefox 3.5. On June 17, Mozilla started wrapping up the second Release Candidate for Firefox 3.5. In this regard, the public will be receiving Firefox 3.5 RC2 starting tomorrow at the earliest, according to the plans of the open source browser maker.


At the same time, Mozilla started to look forward in the future of Firefox's evolution. Testers will be able to get their hands on the first build of Firefox 3.6 four weeks after Firefox 3.5 will be launched as an Alpha 1 release. Firefox 3.6 is not the final moniker of the next generation of Mozilla's open source browser, but it will be used for at least the start of the development process. Firefox 3.5 itself was referred to as version 3.1 until well into 2009.

Digital Bangladesh , but price of digital products as per budget,

The prices of computer accessories are on the rice after the budget speech of the finance Minster AMA Muhith. Digital gadgets for the common people of Digital Bangladesh will be hard to buy than last year. But Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, BASIS, and Bangladesh Computer Samity, BCS, appreciated the budget speech of the finance minister for a significant allocation for the development of IT sector, which is over 500 core Taka including 100 core Taka emergency fund.
According to the National ICT policy of the country 5 per cent ADP and 2 per cent revenue budget are supposed to be allocated for the development of ICT sector. So instead of over 500 core Taka, the allocation was supposed to be over 3000 core Taka. The allocation of the budget is not remarkable according to the provisions of the National ICT policy, but compare to previous budgets the allocation is much higher. President of BCS Mustafa Jabbar and President of BASIS Habibullah N Karim welcomed the budget and they think it is the millstone budget to gradually reach to the targeted allocation as per the provisions of the National ICT Policy.

However, computer vendor houses of the country are very much disappointed with the budget and the disappointment caused at least 5 per cent price rise of IT accessories just immediate after the budget speech. During the finance minister budget speech computer vendors stopped selling IT gadgets and stocked the digital goods. IT vendor houses informed the IT reporter the prices will be much higher after the finishing of their stocks. 4 to 21 per cent taxes and duty fee have been increased for almost every IT product.

IT news:Microsoft to address DST

Microsoft Bangladesh announced a patch based fix to address the Day Light Saving Time (DST) which is supposed to be effective in Bangladesh from June 19th at 11PM. This fix can be downloaded from Microsoft's corporate website by going to http://support.microsoft.com


/kb/972423 and will be applicable to Computers running on Microsoft operating systems like Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003.
Users have to download the msi file from the given website, run it and then choose "(GMT+06:00) DHAKA" option from the "Time Zone Settings" instead of "Astana, Dhaka" and check on the "AUTOMATICALLY ADJUST CLOCK FOR DAY LIGHT SAVING TIME" to enable DST. This would automatically adjust the clock on June 19th at 11PM from when the DST would be effective.

Scholarship news for Bangladeshi students

The University of Hull, one of the leading institutions in the United Kingdom for higher education, has announced its scholarship programme for Bangladeshi students for September 2009 session, says a press release.
Radhika Longbottom, International Recruitment Manager (South and Southeast Asia) of the university, disclosed this at a press conference held at the National Press Club recently.
Infozee International Ltd, a global education consulting firm offering free admission information and other assistance to Bangladesh students on UK's 22 universities and four colleges, including the University of Hull, organised the press conference.


The scholarships will be awarded both to undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Longbottom said last year five Bangladeshi students were awarded with the scholarships -- Syed Shah Mohammad Osama in BSc in Accounting & Finance, Shafiq Rehman in MSc in Estuarine and Coastal Science and Management, Adnan Mannan in MSc in Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, Kamal Billah in MA in Gender and Development, and Azharul Haque in BSc in Accounting. Director Operations of Infozee Dhaka office Sazia Alam, Admin Manager Asadul Haq and Marketing Manager Zahidur Rahman were also present.