Bangladesh is to provide broadband Internet services free for nearly 40,000 state-run primary schools and slashed charges of broadband Internet bandwidth by 60%.

The move was announced by the state watchdog the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) which wants to connect tens of thousands of villages where 70 percent of the country's 144 million people live.

It will mean that all state-run schools, colleges, madrassas and universities will get free connections. There are only three million users, Internet users in Bangladesh.

One ISP said that the cut in charges would double the number of users in the country in less than a year.

Bangladesh has seen a growth in telecommunications in the last three years. There were 42 million mobile phone users at end of May, up from 1.5 million in early 2004. X

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AP