With a view to regulate Internet CAS Server, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has selected organisations that will be entitled to set up the CAS server.

The commission took the decision in its meeting held in the first week of December, following a meeting with Google on November 2 and Facebook on November 16.

According to the decision, organisations that are already using the CAS server will have to take permission from the BTRC.  

The BTRC took the decision when the Internet Service Providers Association Bangladesh (ISPAB), an association for all the Internet service-providing organisations in the country, asked the BRTC to take an initiative to cancel the selling of bandwidth.

The ISPAB informed the BTRC that many Internet service providers are selling CAS bandwidth after setting up their own servers. This posed a security threat to the country, it said.

The Central Authentication Service (CAS) is a single sign-on protocol for the web. Its purpose is to permit a user to access multiple applications while providing their credentials (such as user ID and password) only once. It also allows web applications to authenticate users without gaining access to a user's security credentials such as a password.

According to BTRC data, mobile phone operators in the country have been using the CAS servers of Facebook.

If the new instruction is implemented, mobile phone operators would have to take permission from the BTRC.

BTRC chairman Shahjahan Mahmood said: “The regulator took the decision after being confirmed that the CAS server will not create security threats if the commission has control over it.”

According to the commission meeting, all the CAS servers, including those of Facebook, Google and YouTube, will be set up on the edge of the Internet Service Provider (ISP), International Internet Gateway (IIG) and the National Internet Exchange (NIX) operator after getting the BTRC’s approval.

The BTRC has entrusted its Engineering and Operations Division to implement the exercise of control.

However, the commission has not yet considered any kind of fee or revenue sharing for the CAS servers.

According to the minutes of the commission meeting, a CAS server is considered as one of the world's most popular value-added services in the case of Internet usage.

The servers have gained popularity because of being cost-effective. If consumers can get the services of Facebook, Google and YouTube through CAS servers, it will be cost effective with lesser latency.

Initially, Google, Facebook and YouTube were connected with the AKAMAI server. Recently, Facebook has started providing their own CAS servers after getting themselves out of the previous server.

Facebook is now providing free servers to those who, on average, use 1GB bandwidth.

Out of the total Internet usage in the country, 85 per cent accounts for Facebook. The BTRC states that eight crore subscribers are using Internet services in the country at the moment.