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Cover Story

A Status Symbol Goes Public

The process of acquiring a fixed telephone line in Bangladesh is still possibly the greatest indicator of the rampant and accepted 'social norm' of corruption. What should not cost more than a few thousand takas invariably ends up in the tens of thousands, that is if you are lucky. There are many different people to be bribed from the local lineman to the head of the BTTB and at the end of it one is not guaranteed a line. It is an amazing system where even bribes cannot guarantee delivery of the good, most of the money is given just to start a file and for the process to be set into motion. Actually receiving a new telephone line usually takes months and many people who chose not to pay bribes have been waiting for years. And all for a simple telephone line, which does not even connect most of the country, a glaring number of the villages are left out of the fixed telephone line network. But there is hope, the promise of connectivity no longer lies with the BTTB, mobile phone operators have resuscitated the choked lines of communication between the village and the city and with it a nation is brought together.

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