Billionaire-investor Elon Musk’s Starlink was being launched in Bangladesh to stop internet shutdown forever, said Muhammad Yunus’s press secretary Shafiqul Alam on a Facebook post Tuesday.
“The Sheikh Hasina dictatorship shut down the internet on numerous occasions during her 16-year rule… a favorite tool of dictators and autocrats to crack down on protests or suppress major opposition agitations,” he wrote.
Alam stated that the shutdowns affected hundreds of thousands of freelancers; some lost their contracts and jobs permanently, the Dhaka Tribune reported Tuesday.
Alam also said that Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms would no longer be affected by shutdowns after Starlink launches in the country.
According to an analysis by Acote, a leading BPO firm operating in the US and Europe, there are about 500,000 active freelancers in Bangladesh who generate a combined total of $100 million annually. The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) also reports that Bangladesh is the second largest provider of online labor.
On February 19, Bangladesh’s interim chief adviser, Yunus, sent a letter to Musk and invited him to launch Starlink, a satellite internet service that could bypass government-imposed blackouts. Yunus urged Musk to visit Bangladesh, saying Starlink would have a “transformational impact” on young people, rural communities, and freelancers.
“Let us work together to deliver our mutual vision for a better future,” Yunus wrote.
The letter came six days after Yunus held an extensive phone discussion with Musk to explore future collaboration and advance the introduction of Starlink satellite internet services in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is already coordinating with SpaceX to roll out Starlink services in the next 90 days.
A satellite-based system like Starlink operates outside traditional telecom networks, according to reports.
Bangladesh witnessed protests and violent clashes between students and law enforcement for a month from July to August 2024. Demonstrators called for a “Long March to Dhaka” after violent clashes left over 100 dead. The government responded by cutting off the internet, per reports.
The protests led to the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She fled the country on August 5.
