Bangladesh’s mobile telecommunications industry has issued an urgent warning of widespread network shutdowns across the country, as fuel shortages triggered by the ongoing Middle East conflict leave data centres and backup power systems critically under-resourced. The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh wrote to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission stating that continued telecom operations can no longer be sustained without the fuel needed to power operations including data centres, warning of an imminent risk of large-scale telecom network shutdowns across significant parts of the country if conditions do not improve rapidly.
The South Asian nation of 170 million people imports 95 percent of its oil and gas, mostly from the Middle East, and shortages have hit hard, with queues at filling stations lasting as long as 12 hours. The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh said mobile network operators are experiencing severe operational distress due to the prolonged unavailability of commercial power and the lack of assured fuel supply for backup systems. Data centres consume approximately 500 to 600 litres of diesel per hour, amounting to nearly 4,000 litres per day per facility, which local fuel stations are unable to provide. Multiple strategically vital telecom facilities are currently running on dangerously low fuel reserves, the association said.
Association secretary general Mohammad Zulfikar warned that shutdowns of data centres would create ripple effects across the wider network, saying that a partial or complete network blackout could bring calls, internet, text messages, and all other services to a standstill or cause severe disruption. He added that the internet may become painfully slow or go down entirely, as data centres are the command hubs where traffic is routed and controlled. For a country of Bangladesh’s size and population density, a large-scale telecom outage would be catastrophic in its reach, affecting financial transactions, emergency services, supply chains, and the daily communication of tens of millions of people.
The government raised fuel prices on Saturday, including increasing diesel by 15 percent from 100 to 115 taka per litre and petrol by 16 percent from 116 to 135 taka per litre. Energy Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud told reporters that Bangladesh had to raise prices due to the global crisis, noting that the entire world had adjusted prices. Depots were ordered to supply more fuel to filling stations at the revised prices, but the move has so far made little impact on availability. One driver said it took him 16 hours on Sunday to refill his car, while others reported spending 10 to 12 hours waiting at fuel stations. The situation in Bangladesh illustrates the cascading effects that Middle East energy disruptions can inflict on import-dependent economies across Asia, where digital infrastructure is only as resilient as the fuel supply that keeps its physical backbone running.
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