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Bangladesh to link with 3rd submarine cable next June

12-terabyte bandwidth to be available to meet an incessant demand for internet

Bangladesh to link with 3rd submarine cable next June

The government is likely to sign up for the third submarine cable in next June, aiming to use 12 terabytes of internet bandwidth, a top official said on Tuesday.
“We have already signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and hopefully will finalise terms and conditions in March next for joining the consortium of SEA-ME-WE 6 to subscribe 12 terabytes of internet bandwidth,” Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) Managing Director Mashiur Rahman told daily sun Tuesday.

He said Bangladesh will use six terabytes of internet bandwidth through Singapore route and another six through European route.“We expect to sign the construction and maintenance agreement within June, 2020.”

According to officials, Bangladesh will need to spend US$60 million to connect with the submarine cable.

The new submarine cable will be laid from Singapore to France.

A total of 16 companies including Microsoft of 10 countries will join the consortium.

At a recent meeting in presence of Prime Minister’s ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the Posts and Telecom Ministry instructed BSCCL for taking necessary preparation to join the new submarine connectivity after proper assessment.

Bangladesh first connected with the undersea cable South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) in 2006 and with the second one SEA-ME-WE 5 in 2017.By providing the high capacity fibre optic submarine cable bandwidth and state-of-the-art internet transit facilities, BSCCL is effectively connecting the people to the “Information Super Highway”, said Mashiur Rahman.

The state-run BSCCL currently maintains two submarine cable landing stations in Cox’s Bazar and Patuakhali having the combined capacity to offer 950gbps of bandwidth.

Internet bandwidth uses now stand at 950 gigabits per second (Gbps), up from 550 Gbps a year ago in conjunction with the roll-out of 4G services in the country.

BSCCL is exporting 10Gbps of IP Bandwidth to Tripura from since February 2016.

“We will require to join the third submarine as the SEA-ME-WE 4 will be ineffective within one or two years,” former managing director of BSCCL Monwar Hossain told daily sun Tuesday.