Transparent glasses are widely used for making optical and electronic devices. Transparent 20SrO–(15−x)Bi 2 O 3 −xCeO 2 –65B 2 O 3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 5, mol%) glasses are prepared via melt-quench technique and characterized using UV–visible and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectra. The ac conductivities of the glasses increase within the addition of CeO 2 . The physical parameter, density of the glass samples are characterized by Archimedes’ method. The optical absorption studies show that the present glass system behaves as a direct band gap semiconductor. The FT-IR studies show that the glasses are made up of BO 4 and BO 3 structural units. The conductivity analysis suggests that the charge transport occurs through the participation of nonbridging oxygen atoms.