Bangladesh’s international bandwidth consumption has surged around 260-fold in just 13 years, triggering a debate over whether the country is building submarine cable capacity fast enough to protect its rapidly expanding digital economy.
While industry stakeholders warn that soaring demand and dependence on a limited number of international routes could become a major infrastructure risk, state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC (BSCPLC) insists there is no immediate or foreseeable bandwidth shortage.
Bandwidth consumption jumped from just 50Gbps in 2013 to around 13.5Tbps in 2026, according to figures presented at a telecom industry workshop. Stakeholders project demand could reach 27Tbps by 2028, 54Tbps by 2030 and as much as 305Tbps by 2035.
The explosive growth is being driven by video streaming, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, data centres, digital payments and wider digitalization.
Bangladesh currently relies heavily on the Sea-Me-We-4 and Sea-Me-We-5 submarine cables alongside terrestrial connections, including bandwidth entering through India.
Industry representatives argue that this leaves the country with fewer alternative international routes than regional competitors and could increase vulnerability when cables suffer faults or maintenance disruptions.
BSCPLC, however, strongly rejected warnings of an impending crisis.
It said its two existing submarine cable systems have around 7.2Tbps of capacity, of which about 4Tbps is being supplied and another 3.2Tbps remains available.
More significantly, Sea-Me-We-6 is expected to become operational in 2027, adding 34Tbps and taking BSCPLC’s total capacity to around 41Tbps.
The company cited a BTRC projection putting national demand at around 30Tbps in 2030, arguing that planned capacity would comfortably cover requirements. A fourth submarine cable connection is also being pursued.
Private operators, however, want greater competition and diversification. Proposed private submarine cables could add around 51Tbps of capacity, according to industry representatives.
Metacore Subcom CEO Mohammad Aminul Hakim argued that private cables could strengthen “digital sovereignty”, reduce dependence on terrestrial bandwidth through India and potentially drive down internet costs.
The competing projections have shifted the debate beyond whether Bangladesh has enough bandwidth today.
With submarine cables requiring years of planning and construction, industry stakeholders argue that waiting for capacity to become constrained could be too late.