Stay Connected in Dhaka

Connectivity in Dhaka is a study in contrasts. The city has surprisingly capable 4G coverage across most neighborhoods, with Gulshan, Banani, and Dhanmondi pulling the strongest signals and quick enough speeds for video calls or maps. The gap between coverage and reliability catches travelers off guard. You'll have full bars and still watch a page hang, mostly during evening peak hours when half the city seems to be streaming cricket. Power cuts are less common than they used to be. But they can still knock cell towers offline in older neighborhoods like Old Dhaka. Hotel WiFi tends to be functional in the lobby and patchy in rooms. Cafe WiFi in Gulshan is generally decent. The frustrating part for visitors? KYC registration on local SIMs requires a passport copy and fingerprint scan, which trips up travelers expecting a five-minute kiosk transaction. Plan for connectivity. Don't assume it.

Bangladesh has four main mobile carriers, and in Dhaka you'll mostly be choosing between Grameenphone, Robi, and Banglalink. Grameenphone has the largest network and tends to be the safest bet for consistent coverage across Dhaka and onward travel to Cox's Bazar or Sylhet. Most expats living in Dhaka use it. Robi (which merged with Airtel and still sells under both brands) is a close second, often cheaper, and works well in central Dhaka neighborhoods like Gulshan, Banani, and Bashundhara. Banglalink is the budget option with decent Dhaka coverage but weaker rural reach. 4G is the default across Dhaka. 5G has rolled out in limited pockets, but don't count on it. Real-world speeds tend to land in the 10-25 Mbps range on 4G, which handles maps, ride-hailing apps like Pathao and Uber, and WhatsApp video calls without drama. Speeds dip noticeably in dense areas like New Market or during evening peak. Coverage gets spotty outside the main areas. Fair warning.

Public WiFi in Dhaka, whether hotel lobbies, the airport, or cafes in Gulshan and Banani, tends to be open or use a shared password printed on a receipt. That means anyone on the same network can potentially see unencrypted traffic. Travelers are unusually attractive targets because we tend to log into banking apps, work email, and booking sites from unfamiliar networks. The practical risk isn't dramatic Hollywood-style hacking. It's more mundane things like session cookie capture on poorly secured sites. A VPN like NordVPN encrypts everything between your device and the VPN server, so even if someone is sniffing the cafe WiFi they see scrambled traffic. Worth turning on whenever you're using hotel or airport WiFi for anything sensitive. Browsing news or maps? Overkill. For banking and work? Switch it on.