Trial bandwidth export to India begins tomorrow

Bangladesh is ready to run trial transmission of bandwidth export to India from tomorrow (Tuesday) through Akhaura-Agartala frontier, said officials.

They said Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), which is responsible for managing bandwidth, has already completed necessary preparation from its side, BSS reports.

BSCCL Managing Director Monwar Hossain on Monday said they are ready to run the trial transmission of the bandwidth from tomorrow.

“The formal export of bandwidth to India will be started from December 7 following the successful trial,” he added.

Officials said, both the countries have already established linkage on November 16 as optical fibre of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) connected with its counterpart at zero point on the Akhaura-Agartala border. But, the trial transmission was delayed as India couldn’t complete its preparation to receive the bandwidth on time.

Officials informed that India has installed international router in its side to clear the possible technical complexities during transmission.

During the Indian Prime Minister Norendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh, the state-owned BSCCL struck a deal with the Indian state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for exporting bandwidth.

According to the agreement, BSNL decided to import 10 gbps bandwidth for Tripura state from September this year, but the export had been fixed one month ahead in August. Later, the deadline was missed due to incomplete preparation, especially from Indian side.

The submarine cable company will get the payment at the beginning of each quarter while Bangladesh will earn Taka 9.6 crore a year by exporting bandwidth to India.

The deal has been signed initially for a year and it can be extended for two more years, said BSCCL officials. They also informed the bandwidth price will be reviewed after a year.

Meanwhile, another two Indian states of Assam and Meghalaya had also shown interest in importing bandwidth from Bangladesh.

Now the BSCCL, who manages the country’s lone submarine cable having over 200 gbps bandwidth has the capacity to export bandwidth up to 50 gbps after meeting domestic demand. Now, Bangladesh is consuming only 33 per cent of the total bandwidth. The country’s demand for bandwidth may reach 210 gbps by 2021.

Besides, Bangladesh will connect with second undersea cable by 2016 to get to another 1400 gbps bandwidth.

Since the lifetime of Bangladesh’s submarine cable will end within the next 12 years, there is no other alternative to exporting bandwidth.