Last month’s internet blackouts in Bangladesh during student protests that led to the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina were ordered by the government and not the result of data centre fires, according to an independent probe.
To recap, Bangladesh’s mobile internet went dark on July 17, followed by a complete internet blackout on July 18 as student protests against a government jobs quota scheme turned violent. Fixed broadband connectivity was fully restored on July 24, while mobile internet services came back online on July 28. Internet services were shut down again on August 4-5 as protests escalated, demanding Hasina’s resignation.
According to a press statement from the Ministry for Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology, an independent seven-person committee tasked with investigating the outage said in its preliminary report that then-ICT minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak verbally instructed Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) chairman Md Mohiuddin Ahmed to order operators to shut down their internet services.
The shutdown and eventual restoration was directed by the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, the report said.
The committee’s preliminary findings confirm earlier statements by Bangladesh operators that the internet blackout was ordered by the government.
The findings also contradict Palak’s repeated claims that the blackout was the result of “planned sabotage” by protesters who allegedly set fire to three data centres in the Dhaka neighbourhood of Mohakhali and destroyed “hundreds of kilometres of cables”. Palak also claimed the three data centres “housed 18 IIG systems, which host 70% of the ISP servers, causing the internet disruption”.
However, Palak provided no evidence to back up his claims, while the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers Association (BMPCA) told the Daily Star even if the data centres had been completely destroyed, no more than 25% of internet users would have been affected, as major ISPs don’t keep servers there and connection redundancy is designed into the system. A separate report in the Business Standard noted that mobile internet services went offline the day before the data centre fires, while fixed broadband went offline hours after the fires were put out.
The preliminary committee report said that it found no connection between the internet blackout and the data centre fires. "By falsely associating the internet shutdown with the damage caused to the data centre by the fire, former state minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak misled the nation and engaged in deception,” the press release said.
Nahid Islam, adviser to the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology, replaced Palak as ICT minister last Friday under the interim government that was formed after Hasina’s resignation on August 5. Grameen Telecom founder Muhammad Yunus was named chief adviser of the interim government on August 6.
The committee investigating the blackout was formed under a directive from Nahid to find out what exactly happened and who was responsible. The ministry said the investigation was necessary as the blackout has not only disrupted daily life for citizens, but also tarnished Bangladesh's global image.
Various media reports have said the telecoms and digital commerce sectors lost several million US dollars per day due to the mobile internet outage. Bangladesh’s Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industries (FICCI) had estimated losses for the overall economy at over US$10 billion as of July 28.
The committee said it has submitted its preliminary report, while further investigations into the blackout are ongoing.
