Ipadio - connecting telephony to the internet, without accessing internet

One of the technologies I have been simply in love with is ‘ipadio’ at www.ipadio.com. When I met these guys at a technology conference in London last year, I knew immediately that this is it, the simplicity of the technology and its potential to reach to the last mile simply made me an ardent advocate. If you check out the website, you will see that it just connects simple telephony to the internet – means you only need a landline or a mobile phone to connect to the internet, by leaving an audio message. That’s it.

During my forming years of working at Swisscontact Katalyst, I learnt a lot about how ICT is being used by rural farmers and small businesses in Bangladesh. Amidst all the fanfare and festivity about the power of ICT in Bangladesh, the reliance on internet and the need to access a desktop computer in a village or union parishad, provided that electricity is intact – always posed significant challenge till now – in implementing seamless access to information. I wonder in a country like Bangladesh where mobile penetration is way ahead that of internet penetration, something like ipadio would work wonders in allowing those with a simple mobile phone or in possession of a good old landline – to leave audio information in the internet. The file that gets generated is in .mp3 format making it easy for sharing, embedding in any other website, blogs, social media etc. Interestingly it can be the other way round as well – you can call up someone else and record that interview as an audio file, incase you don’t want the other party to incur any calling costs. Ipadio has freephone numbers in more than 60 countries of the world but they are still not in Bangladesh. If it was possible for them to obtain a local number in Bangladesh, I am sure the service could have been extended to the mass technology lovers and development organisations in Bangladesh.

Services such as this can prove to be extremely relevant and useful in crisis situations like in the Middle East and North Africa where the government is quick to shutdown internet and block mobiles. However, since its still possible to communicate via landlines phones, ipadio offers a great way out to pass out crucial information to the rest of the world. Governments will have to shut down international telephone gateways and even satellite communications to snap the full power of ipadio.

Have you used the premium dial-up internet service?

You may have known by now that Bangladesh Tar and Telephone Board (BTTB) has changed its name to Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd. (BTCL). Moreover, it has started to offer a new range of communication services. Its Premium Dial-Up Service is perhaps the first of its kind in Bangladesh.

Premium Dial-Up service has a number of cool features that enable an internet user to browse more freely. One doesn’t need to register with any ISP by purchasing (1) a registration card and (2) a recharge card. All one needs is to have a land phone line and a modem.

According to BTCL, any of its telephone user can avail internet service by dialing the access code 0101234 (Multimetering) through his/her computer. The username is "bttb" and the password is "bttb".

The pricing is a bit ambiguous to me. According to BTCL’s website, “The internet usage charge will be automatically added with the telephone bill. The tariff for the internet use through this service is equivalent to the local telephone call charge.”

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An user of this service blogged:

Their download speed is average 5 Kilobyte/sec, I noticed this speed in Dhaka. For each 150 seconds or it's fractional usage you will be charged Tk 1.50. Simply I explain, the premium bill is 1 paisa per second, 60 paisa per minute and 36 Tk per hour. This is very expensive comparing rates of private ISPs. Because they offer 5 paisa to 30 paisa per minute usage depending on various plans. I know dialup internet is free in Italy for landline phone subscribers. But we in Bangladesh pay more and more to our service providers. In returns they give us dissatisfactory service in most cases.

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Nevertheless, it’s really good to see that the Government has started to rollover many of its policies these days. Let’s support them in their endeavours.