Google Chromebook and Cloud services versus Internet Connectivity in Bangladesh

নোটঃ এই গবেষণাধর্মী আর্টিকেলটি পাঠিয়েছেন আমাদের সাইটের একজন নিয়মিত ভিজিটর ফাহ্‌রিয়া কবির আপু। তিনি এশিয়ান ইউনিভার্সিটি ফর উইমেন এ জুনিয়র টিচিং ফেলো হিসেবে আছেন। আমাদের ব্লগে প্রকাশিত ফাহ্‌রিয়া আপুর একটি বাংলা আর্টিকেল “তথ্যপ্রযুক্তি সঙ্ক্রান্ত নৈতিকতা নিয়ে আমরা কতটুকু সচেতন?” পড়তে পারেন এই লিংকে।

Google chromebook could have been a pretty good solution for users in Bangladesh. This notebooks are priced from $199 which is approximately BDT 16K, and comes with a good configuration. However, Google Chromebook is a smart choice only if it is connected with internet while using, as all the programs running on the Chrome OS are basically cloud based. Not only that, this cheap laptop doesn’t even have internal storage system, if an end user buys a chrome book it will get a at least 100GB space in the Google Drive for storage use.

It might be free for first 1 or 2 years, but gradually the user have to pay for the Google Drive storage. The recent price for Google Drive space might not seem much which is approximately $5 (BDT389) for 100GB space, but, the question remains is it feasible for users in Bangladesh? These notebooks are sleek and light in design and anyone who cares about smooth designing might want to go for Google Chromebooks.

However, as told earlier, it has to be connected with continuous internet connection while using, it should be added that, it will need a good amount of bandwidth to access several cloud based services (applications) in a parallel way. Because, Google chrome books are not offering traditional way of using software. Suppose, for watching movies we might use VLC player which runs on the local system. Explaining further, this VLC media player is installed in the Desktop or Laptop a user is using, and, the operating system for say Windows or Linux is running it from this particular device.

But, in case of chromebook, it will be run from the Cloud. For the ease of understanding, we can call cloud a storage space in the internet. So, a high speed internet connection is one of the basic needs for using this eye catchy tech solution. Even though, Bangladesh has entered into the 3G connectivity, but, still, Bangladesh lack high speed data connectivity with unlimited bandwidth. People are mostly interested in Mobile internet system, and mobile internet connections are increasing rapidly.

The mobile operators are offering mini packages like 2MB/10MB/50 MB usages besides 1GB usage or more than 1GB usage. But, 1GB solution is not enough for accessing cloud services continuously! Keeping in mind all these riddles, can we really expect Google Chromebooks to enter into Bangladesh market? Or should we expect cloud computing to thrive in Bangladesh in this current internet infrastructure? Again, should not we demand for better internet connectivity all over Bangladesh with better bandwidth capability? Shouldn’t we expect our government to look into the unused bandwidth issue to be resolved for the overall betterment?

Fahria Kabir

Junior Teaching Fellow, Asian University for Women

twitter.com/fahriafams

Sources:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/#foreveryone-promo-family

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/bangladesh/internet-users-wb-data.html

http://www.theindependentbd.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=171715:33-million-internet-users-in-bangladesh&Itemid=122