Mobile net slowed down

Mobile internet speed was brought down to minimum level yesterday evening so that picture or video could not be uploaded for next 24 hours following a recommendation of the law-enforcement agencies to limit street agitations.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission passed on the order yesterday afternoon to all mobile phone operators and asked them to implement it from 7:30pm, said a top executive of a mobile operator.

“The telecom regulator has directed us to bring down the speed for next 24 hours and after that they will evaluate the situation and give us new directives,”said the executive requesting anonymity.

In its order, BTRC asked the operators to bring down the mobile internet speed to 2G level.

“As the internet speed was brought down, it will take a huge time to upload a picture, let alone a video file,” said the executive.

No BTRC officials were available for comment on the issue.

However, mobile internet users complained that they faced internet outage at different places of the country.

Tushin Ahmed, a private university student from Mirpur in the capital, said his mobile phone internet had been down since 8:00pm.

According to the BTRC, there were 8.78 crore active internet connections in the country as of June this year and mobile phone connections accounted for 93.43 percent.

Earlier on Thursday, top police officials at a high-level meeting at their headquarters recommended bringing down mobile internet speed to 2G on a temporary basis.

In November 2015, the government shut down internet for the first time for a few hours after the Supreme Court had delivered verdicts upholding the death penalties of war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.

At that time, the government also blocked Facebook and a couple of mobile applications for communication for a few weeks.