Three private firms will invest approximately Tk2,000 crore collectively to connect the country with three more submarine communication cables, for better internet connectivity.
The move will also ensure that internet connections are available at more competitive prices and reduce or end bandwidth imports.
India currently caters to around 40% of the country's demand for bandwidth through land cables.
Three local companies -- Summit Communications, CdNet Communications and Metacore Subcom Ltd -- have obtained licences to establish, maintain and operate submarine cables.
Having deposited a licence awarding fee of Tk10 crore each, excluding 15% VAT, the firms will also have to pay Tk3 crore as an annual licence fee.
In addition, they will have to roll out communication cables within 48 months of obtaining the licence, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) guidelines in this regard.
However, the companies are planning to connect the country with new submarine cables by 2024, which is one year ahead of the deadline considering the date they were awarded licences.
Submarine cable systems generally use optical fibre cables laid undersea to carry international data traffic, creating telecommunication links between countries across the world.
As such, cable systems cost several hundred million dollars to construct, and are funded by consortiums of telecom operators, private cable operators and private-public partnerships in some cases.
All three local companies said they are initially looking to join any of three initiatives, namely Reliance Jio Infocomm of India, NTT Ltd of Japan or Campana of Singapore.
The Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) is a member of the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) consortium, the first undersea cable with which the country was connected in 2006. It supplies about 800 Gbps bandwidth.
The state-run entity also supplies 1,600 Gbps bandwidth through the SEA-ME-WE 5, the connection with which was established in 2017.
Meanwhile, the BSCCL is set to receive 13,200 Gbps from its third undersea cable connection, SEA-ME-WE 6, by 2025.
Besides, the company is going to spend $3.2 million to raise the capacity of its first undersea cable connection by more than four times to 4,600 Gbps.
However, the entry of private firms is set to break the state monopoly as the BSCCL was previously the lone entity permitted to connect the country with the rest of the world through undersea cables.
Bandwidth consumption witnessed a remarkable rise during the coronavirus pandemic as people turned to the internet for work, education and entertainment from home.
As such, bandwidth usage surged to 4,200 Gbps at present from 1,000 Gbps in the pre-pandemic era, BTRC data showed.
However, an official of a telecom operator said if they could lay their own fibre optic cables in the country, then the rolling out of new submarine cables would be more fruitful for end users.
In 2008, the BTRC barred local telecom operators from laying fibre optic cables and introduced a Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN) licence that only other private entities can avail in order to break the telecom industry's monopoly in this regard.
BSCCL could face stiff competition once private companies launch their services.