MetroNet Bangladesh

About MetroNet Bangladesh

MetroNet Bangladesh Limited is the country's largest and most established nationwide data-communication company, incorporated in 2001 as a joint venture of Rahimafrooz Bangladesh Limited, Flora Telecom, and Ferdous Azam Khan. Syed Almas Kabir has led the company as Managing Director and CEO, building it into the first company in Bangladesh to lay fiber optic network for commercial use.

That early infrastructure investment, at a time when the country's internet was still built largely on older, slower connections, positioned MetroNet as foundational infrastructure for Bangladesh's later digital growth rather than just another internet service provider.

An Engineer With Two Continents of Education

Syed Almas Kabir studied Electrical Engineering at Jadavpur University in India before completing a Master's degree at New York University in the United States. That combination of engineering training and an international postgraduate education gave him a technical grounding that shaped MetroNet's early direction toward infrastructure rather than software products alone.

He has spent more than 33 years in Bangladesh's ICT sector altogether, moving between building MetroNet, teaching at the university level, and serving in senior industry leadership roles.

Laying Bangladesh's First Commercial Fiber Network

Under Syed Almas Kabir's leadership, MetroNet became the first company in Bangladesh to lay fiber optic network for commercial use, a foundational bet on infrastructure that few competitors were prepared to make at the time. The network has since grown to span 63 districts with more than 3,000 Points of Presence across the country.

Over time, MetroNet's offerings expanded well past internet connectivity into cloud computing, fintech infrastructure, cybersecurity, intranet services, and IP telephony, mirroring the broader shift in what Bangladeshi businesses have needed from their data infrastructure provider over the past two decades. That expansion mattered most to the banks, enterprises, and government agencies that had come to depend on MetroNet's original fiber network and needed the same reliability extended into newer categories of service.

Leading BASIS and Shaping Policy

Beyond running MetroNet, Syed Almas Kabir served as President of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services from 2018 to 2022, one of the more consequential terms in the organization's recent history. During his presidency, he created an e-Government Cell within BASIS specifically to help government agencies prepare and evaluate technology tenders, a structural change aimed at improving public sector IT procurement rather than just advocating for industry interests from the outside.

His work in policy and industry advocacy also earned him recognition from the U.S. State Department, which named him an International Visitor under its Leadership Program, a distinction awarded to a small number of foreign professionals judged to have influence on their country's future direction.

Teaching Alongside Running a Company

Alongside his business and policy work, Syed Almas Kabir has held senior academic roles at Independent University Bangladesh, North South University, and City University, and served as adjunct faculty at National University and Northern University. That ongoing presence in academia has kept him connected to a younger generation of engineers even while running a nationwide infrastructure company, a combination that has shaped how he talks publicly about MetroNet's role, less as a single business and more as part of the country's underlying digital infrastructure.

Where MetroNet Stands Today

Nearly a quarter-century after laying Bangladesh's first commercial fiber network, MetroNet Bangladesh remains one of the country's foundational data-communication providers, employing several hundred people out of its Dhaka operations. Anonymous employee reviews on Glassdoor point to a company whose infrastructure legacy is well established, even as reviewers flag more room for improvement in day-to-day management and compensation than some of the newer, smaller software companies profiled alongside it in this directory.

Products

MetroNet Bangladesh's offerings center on network infrastructure and connectivity services rather than packaged software products.

Fiber Optic Broadband is MetroNet's original service line, providing the commercial fiber network it was the first company in Bangladesh to build.

Enterprise Solutions cover consultancy, network design, and systems integration for business customers building out their own IT infrastructure.

Cloud Computing and IP Telephony extend MetroNet's core connectivity business into hosted infrastructure and voice services for enterprise clients.

Across fiber connectivity, enterprise solutions, and cloud and voice services, MetroNet Bangladesh's business reflects the same infrastructure-first approach that built the company in 2001, delivered by a team working out of Dhaka across 63 districts nationwide.