Bangladesh faces a widespread shutdown of mobile phones without rapid improvements in fuel shortages sparked by the West Asia war, operators said on Monday (April 20, 2026).
The South Asian nation of 170 million people imports 95% of its oil and gas, mostly from the West Asia, and shortages have hit hard, with queues at filling stations lasting for as long as 12 hours.
The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) said on Monday (April 20, 2026) that continued telecom operations can no longer be sustained without the fuel needed to power operations including data centres.
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“The situation has escalated beyond the operational control,” AMTOB wrote in a letter to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
