The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has decided to go tough against the cyber café owners who are yet to acquire licences from the commission.
The commission will also take action against the internet service providers who
are selling bandwidth to the illegal cyber cafés.The BTRC will issue a general warning to the cyber café owners for receiving the licences immediately after the Cyber Café Owners Association of Bangladesh recently drew attention of commission’s chairman Sunil Kanti Bose on the matter, said commission officials.
They said the cyber café business needed proper regulation as that could be used for illegal and anti-social activities.
The BTRC notice will also warn the café owners
about the legal consequences for not obtaining the licences and the ISPs for selling bandwidth to those.
Cyber cafés remained out of regulatory supervision in the country until 2009 when the BTRC formulated guideline for the internet cafés and brought those under licence.
According to the BTRC law, cyber cafés must have an office with valid address and there must be at least two contact phone numbers and one e-mail address.
It said the café management has to keep the record of the customers’ name and address or national ID card record in a register.
Privacy for the customers will be ensured only through a partition with a maximum height of four feet from the floor level and use of doors or restricted booths is prohibited, it said.
It also said school students would not be allowed to use the cafés during class hours unless they had authorisation from the parents or teachers.
The access to pornographic and subversive web sites is restricted in the cyber cafés, it also said.
-With New Age input
