US firm AlwaysOn Network will invest $60 million to provide Internet services to most of Bangladesh within 10 years, an AFP report said.
The AFP report said the company signed an agreement with the Bangladesh information and communication technology ministry to establish Internet services in each of the impoverished country's 64 districts.
District towns outside Dhaka have access to the Internet at present but rural areas are unconnected, the report said.
'This is the biggest ever investment in Internet services in the country,' ministry spokesman Mohammad Azam was quoted as saying. 'Under the agreement the company will invest $60 million to build an Internet infrastructure across the country. In the next 10 years they will cover at least 85% of our population.'
The Dhaka government says only 3% of the 144 million Bangladeshis have access to the Internet, one of the lowest penetration rates of Internet services in the world.
AlwaysOn CEO Quentin H. Breen was also quoted as saying that the firm would provide services free to all primary schools in Bangladesh.
It will initially offer Internet services via radio-link wave and then gradually introduce the fiber-optic link. Base stations will be built at 87 points, including 19 in Dhaka, the Reuters report said.