Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are scheduled to formally inaugurate Bangladesh's bandwidth export to India through video conference on Wednesday.
The inaugural ceremony is scheduled to begin at the Prime Minister's Office in Dhaka at 10:30am.
“It would be a gala ceremony to mark the maiden export of bandwidth, in which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Naredra Modi will formally inaugurate bandwidth export through video conferencing,” Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) Managing Director Monwar Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune.
“Undoubtedly, the bandwidth export will open up a big opportunity for us. After exporting it to India, other countries would also like to import bandwidth from Bangladesh,” he added.
On February 8, Bangladesh unofficially began bandwidth export to India through the Akhaura-Agartala border.
The state-owned company signed a deal with the Indian state-owned BSNL on June 6 last year for exporting bandwidth during the Indian prime minister's visit to Bangladesh.
According to the agreement, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) decided to import 10Gbps bandwidth for Tripura state from September last year, but the export timing had been fixed for August. Later, both parties missed the deadline.
The submarine cable company will get the payment at the beginning of each quarter while Bangladesh will earn Tk9.6 crore a year by exporting bandwidth to India.
India is currently importing 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) bandwidth which will increase to 40Gbps later on, as per an agreement.
The BSCCL has the capacity to export up to 50Gbps of bandwidth.
Bangladesh has a bandwidth capacity of 200Gbps, of which only 33% is used.
In 2006, Bangladesh got connected to the current submarine cable at a cost of $63m.
Industry insiders say the country’s demand for bandwidth may reach 210Gbps by 2021.