There are around 300 cyber cafes in the city alone and their number is growing everyday. Taking advantage of the lack of a policy at present, anyone can start this business just obtaining a trade licence from the city corporation.

But Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will soon ask all cyber cafes to get registered under it and follow certain guidelines, sources in the BTRC said.

The Bangladesh Cyber Cafe Association sources said cafe owners invested Tk 40-50 crore in this sector in the last three years. An initial capital of around Tk 10 lakh is required to open a cafe but most of the owners had not obtained any bank loans. Meanwhile the per-hour browsing charge is gradually reducing with the increase in number of cafes.

One can now browse an hour for only Tk 20 whereas he had to pay Tk 120 for same just 18 months ago, a source pointed out.

BTRC sources said the commission decided to formulate the guidelines after they received frequent allegations against the cyber cafes.

Most of the cafes are run without specific plans or proper management, they said. Under the new guidelines, a cafe must start with at least six personal computers and they cannot be used inside cabins. This will prevent them from indulging in the illegal business of 'dirty films,' they observed.

But cafe sources said although most of their clients are young they very rarely watch 'dirty films' in 'public places'. Most of them come to chat, e-mail, look for university addresses or employment abroad, they said.

The cyber cafes had been making brisk business since November 1 by filling in Diversity Visa (DV) lottery forms for applicants.

The US State Department on October 15 made submission of applications through a designated internet website mandatory.

The 'business' will continue till December 30 as hundreds of thousands in the country lack the skill or facility to visit the site and fill in forms along with scanned photographs.

The cyber cafes will become 'busy centres' for data entry after the opening of the information super highway through submarine cables in the near future, cafe owners hoped.

Welcoming the recent legalisation of voice over internet protocol (VOIP) or internet telephony, they urged the government to take effective and realistic steps to make cyber cafes more useful to the masses.