West Asia war impact: Bangladesh's mobile network faces shutdown amid fuel crisis
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "West Asia war impact: Bangladesh's mobile network faces shutdown amid fuel crisis")
West Asia war impact: Bangladesh's mobile network faces shutdown amid fuel crisis Photograph: (Credit: AFP)
Bangladesh’s mobile telecommunications network faces a large-scale shutdown as the West Asia war triggers a crippling fuel shortage. With data centers running on critical diesel reserves and the Strait of Hormuz blocked, AMTOB warns of a total digital blackout.
Bangladesh’s mobile telecommunications network is on the verge of a large-scale shutdown as a crippling fuel shortage, triggered by the escalating conflict in the Middle East, starves the nation’s infrastructure of essential energy. On Monday (Apr 20), the Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) issued a stark warning, stating that continued operations are "no longer sustainable" without immediate government intervention.
The South Asian nation of 170 million people is uniquely vulnerable to the current geopolitical volatility, imports nearly 95% of its oil and gas, primarily from the Middle East. As shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz face severe disruption, the ripple effects have reached the streets of Dhaka and beyond. Filling stations have reported queues lasting up to 12 hours, while the government recently hiked diesel prices by 15% in a desperate attempt to manage the supply crunch.
The crisis has moved beyond transportation and hit the core of the country's digital economy. Telecom operators rely heavily on diesel-powered generators to keep data centres and base transceiver stations (BTS) running during frequent commercial power outages, which now last between five and eight hours daily.
According to AMTOB, the industry’s data centers alone consume approximately 500 to 600 liters of diesel per hour. "The data center is the brain of the operator," said Mohammad Zulfikar, Secretary-General of AMTOB, to news agency AFP. "If it goes down, the entire network goes down. A partial or complete network blackout would bring calls, internet, SMS, and banking services to a standstill."
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The potential blackout threatens more than just personal communication. In a country heavily reliant on Mobile Financial Services (MFS) for daily transactions and garment exports for GDP, a digital disconnection could be catastrophic. Logistics for the RMG (Ready-Made Garment) sector are already strained, with production dipping as much as 30% due to power cuts.
