Internet Adoption and Usage in Bangladesh

Japanese Journal of Administrative Science Research Note Volume20,No.1,2007,43-54. 研究ノート経営行動科学第20巻第1号,2007,43-54. Internet Adoption and Usage in Bangladesh Md.Shah Azam (University of Rajshahi,Bangladesh) Like many developed and developing countries,Bangladesh has witnessed a phenomenal growth in accessing digital technology particularly using the Internet.Although facing many constraints in establishing an internet-dependent society,Bangladesh Government has paid utmost priority to develop the Information Technology usage pattern in her different sectors.Recently Bangladesh has been connected with information superhighway through submarine optic-fiber cable network that creates a favourable environment to increase Internet usage among various citizens.The study attempts to explore the effects of different factors influencing the adoption of Internet in Bangladesh.The Rogers model of Innovation Diffusion has been utilised as theoretical framework to measure the effects of the factors that account for adoption of the Internet,assuming the Internet as an innovation.A multiple regression analysis is carried out to determine the attributes that affect the intention to adopt the Internet,where adoption intention is considered as the explained variable.The study reveals that relative advantage,compatibility and complexity appear significant among the five attributes of innovation,relative advantage,compatibility,complexity,trialability,and observability considered as explanatory variables. Keywords:Rogers model,innovation,adoption,diffusion. only to meet the users information needs.It has already INTRODUCTION been widened its scope in introducing many services. Technology innovation and its adoption declining the Business activities are also considered to be operated older one is a common phenomena.It is observed through Internet,popularly known as e-commerce.3 The as the nature of technology to provide completely or Internet is revolutionizing every aspects of business comparatively new and sophisticated benefits and throughout the world.Although the quantum of business services to the user replacing the foregoing technology. done through Internet is small,it is growing exponentially Adoption and usage of an innovation largely depends (Khatibi and Thiagaraj an,2000). on its nurture and the perception of the user on different Internet is the fastest diffusionary Information and attributes of the innovation. Communication Technology (ICT) innovation till to date. In recent years,developing countries including For instance,it took just ten years for the web-based Bangladesh have witnessed a phenomenal development Internet to reach 50% of American Homes,compared to in the technology-dependent communication medium, 52 years taken by telephone.It took only three years for which is Internetl.In both developing and developed the Internet to reach 50 million users.By contrast,it took countries,Internet is growing rapidly as a strong and 38 years for television to have 50 million users.During popular medium of communication2.Internet is not used 1999,the number of Internet users increased by one million every month(Dholakia,Dholakia and Kshetri, 1 Internet refers to the physical network that links 2003). computers across the globe.It consists of the ITU figures for 2000 and 2001 to show the geographical infrastructure of network servers and wide area distribution of the growth in the Internet population.The communication links between them that are used to hold and transport the vast amount of information on Internet. 3 E-commerce is the procedure to perform every 2 A voluminous statistics show that the growing trend business operation from production to distribution and of Internet in developing countries is higher than that sales through Internet. of in developed countries. ―43― 研究ノート経営行動科学第20巻第1号 data shows that growing shares of new Internet users simple e-mail operation to online transactions.Amid are in developing countries.Another study predicts that of those development ITU4 Ranked Bangladesh's ICT5 by 2005 there will be 941.8 million Internet users in the development in 136 among 178 countries of the globe. world,or almost twice as many as the end of 2001,and Besides this,Bangladesh's ICT position is 6th among the that the largest number of users will be concentrated seven SAARC6countries.Bangladesh is a strong member in Western Europe and Asia/Pacific excluding Japan. of developing countries.Inadequate infrastructure, The worlds Internet population was observed 387531 outdated telephone systems,limited access to telephone thousand in 2000,493020 thousand in 2001 and and computer,poor service quality with high price, 591567thousand in 2002.The shares of the developing lack of qualified personnel,low per capita,low level of countries are 93161thousand,1305717 thousand and literacy and IT skill,and cultural and language barrier, 189882 thousand respectively.The change is observed in hinder her adoption of Internet,though she has the developing countries 39.5% and in developed countries potentials to use Internet technology in developing her 12.4% in 2001-2002 and 21.4% in developed countries education,business,and services.As the most influential and 45.7% in developing countries in the year 2000-2001 and advanced part of her citizenry,university academics (UNCTAD,2002 and UNCTAD,2003).At the end of can adopt first and then disseminate the ideas and 2003,nearly 676 million people (or 11.8 per cent of the practices of Internet technology to many other sectors. total population of the world) had access to the internet; The context above poses the question of whether this represents an increase of 49.5 million people or 7.8 Bangladesh can gain advantages of the IT world in using per cent compared with the figures at the end of 2002 the Internet.This brings in the rationale of undertaking (UNCTAD 2004).Internet user per 10000 observed a study inquiring the issue adoption of Internet in 4495 in 2003 and 4474 in 2002 show .48% growth Bangladesh.The study,thus,looks at the status and mode in developed countries while 501 in 2003 and 429 in of Internet use in Bangladesh and explores the effects of 2002 show 16.78% growth in developing countries. different factors influencing adoption of Internet as an The increasing trend of the population of Internet and innovation. the volume of Internet dependent economy force the ORIGIN OF INTERNET AND developing economy to adopt the Internet in different ITS DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH aspects. The situation of Bangladesh in participating in the Internet has existed since the late 1960s when a limited increasingly networked world is not satisfactory, number of computerswere connected in the United States though government and non-government institutions' to form the ARPANET7.This was mainly used to enable participation and initiatives are countable.Bangladesh academics and military personnel to exchange defense has started achieving its ICT growths in 1990s though information.Recent dramatic growth in the use of Internet she has the experience since 1960.Bangladesh govt.has has occurred because of the development of World Wide taken a number of big steps to motivate the growth of Web.This became a commercialproposition in 1993. ICT industries.It reduces almost 100% import duties In Bangladesh it has come into operation commercially from the computer hardware and peripherals in 1998. in the mid-90s.In early 90s,Bangladesh had access to This encourages the people of many corners of the e-mail via Bulletin Board Systems(BBS).On June 6, country to enjoy the usage of computer with lower cost. 1996 the VSAT base data circuit was commissioned Bangladesh was in the process of being connected with the world's information super highway through submarine 4 International Telecommunication Union recently optic fiber cable during past few years (Internet Fair, ranked 178 countries of the world considering their ICT initiatives and development. 2004).In May 21,2006 Bangladesh has been officially 5 ICT is used to mention the Information and connected with world's information super highway Communication Technology. through submarine optic fiber cable network.This creates 6 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, member countries are Bangladesh,India,Maldives, enormous opportunity for Bangladesh to get access in Nepal,Pakistan,Srilanka and Bhutan. Internet and to use it in various functions ranging from 7 Advanced Research Project Network. ―44― Internet Adoption and Usage in Bangladesh for the first time in the country.Bangladesh Telegraph following areas(Rahman,2003): and Telephone Board(BTTB)granted licenses to two ・Urban and rural populations Internet Service Providers,Information Services Network ・Dhaka(The Capital)and rest of the country (ISN) and Grameen Cybernet to install VSAT (Very ・Different educational streams Small Aperture Terminal,a satellite communications ・Rich population and poorpopulation system) data circuits in the same year.That was the legal ・Male and Female permission of doing business to provide Internet service ・Main stream and tribal population to the people of the country.Just after one year in 1997, ・Government and private organisation tremendous development was observed in the growth of Internet in Bangladesh.Over a dozen ISPs,and ten times Despite suffering from multi-dimensional problems in higher numbers of clients were observed than that of the Internet access,Bangladesh has the potentials of gaining previous year.Afterwards the competition in ISP business

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