With only one government-run submarine cable currently connecting Bangladesh with the rest of the world, every time it malfunctions or the authorities do routine maintenance, internet users all over the country face disruption.
Keeping it mind, the government has already been connected to another submarine cable consortium, which will start benefitting users from early 2015.
Now the government is preparing to get at least one more submarine cable connection by allowing private investment, in a bid to expand internet facilities, sources in the telecommunication ministry have said.
“We have only one submarine cable connection and are in the process of getting engaged with another consortium for a second connection. However, both of them are under government arrangement. We can also have another backup link for uninterrupted internet access,” Md Abubakar Siddique, secretary of telecommunication ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune.
If the government finally approves the proposal, private entrepreneurs will for the first time install, maintain and run undersea cables.
Ministry sources expect that the tenders for the third cable would be floated by the end of this year.
“If we can own at least three submarine cable connections within the next two years, our ICT-based industries will get a boost and our foreign revenue will also increase,” the telecom secretary added.
In March 2011, the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) advertised for allowing private sector investment in the installation of a submarine cable.
Only one application was dropped.
A five-member consortium comprising of local companies participated in the consequent tender nearly a year later, forcing the country’s telecom regulator to cancel the proposal, sources said.
The state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) is currently in charge of the only submarine cable connecting Bangladesh to the world.
It is a cable consortium of 16 countries: the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 or SEA-ME-WE 4. BSCCL is also connected to another consortium of 21 countries for ultra-high-speed telecommunication and internet connectivity – the SEA-ME-WE 5 which would be available by early 2015.
“We have planned to invite tender for another submarine cable by end of this year. That connectivity will be installed solely through private investment,” BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose told the Dhaka Tribune.
The Telecommunication ministry yesterday placed a paper with the parliamentary committee on public undertakings, describing the recent developments in the sector.
According to that paper, BTRC has sought approval from the ministry to publish the advertisement about a privately run submarine cable.
Bangladesh was connected with SEA-ME-WE-4 in May 2006 at a cost of Tk65m, although there was a chance for the country to be a part of the consortium as early as 1992, which, however, was rejected by the Bangladeshi government.
The SEA-ME-WE-5 is now being installed at a cost of roughly Tk70m.
In January 2012, BTRC issued the International Terrestrial Cable license to six local companies whose job was to get backup connections in case of any disruption in internet connectivity from the sole cable.
Bangladesh has also seen disrupted connectivity during natural disasters like cyclones because the submarine cable enters the country through Cox’s Bazar. The private operators can bring the cable in through the Mongla or the Sundarbans, because a cyclone normally makes landfall at one point of the coastline.
Besides, a third connectivity is likely to significantly reduce the price of bandwidth in the country.