The state-run Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC (BSCPLC), which connects Bangladesh to the world through undersea cable for the internet, has started to restore internet speed of different International Internet Gateway operators after it started receiving outstanding bills since Friday.
On Thursday night, the BSCPLC blocked bandwidth supply to the IIG operators that slowed down speed for many customers.
As many as 25 out of 34 operators paid Tk7 crore of the Tk 221 crore dues on Friday, officials said. They hope to receive more payment when banks open on Sunday.
The work to restore the bandwidth began on Friday night after the operators agreed to pay the dues, but it will take until Monday to restore the bandwidth supply completely.
BSCPLC sells 2,500 gbps bandwidth out of the total used 5,100 gbps bandwidth in the country.
On July 13, BSCPLC wrote a letter to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to collect the dues. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications wrote to BTRC on August 9 to take action in this regard. In the letter, it was informed that the outstanding amount of BSCPLC to various operators was Tk384 crore.
As per the practice, BSCPLC allows one month's bill to be kept as arrears. According BSCPLC, the IIGs have about eight months of outstanding bills.
IIG companies act as international gateways for internet traffic. Information flows between the country and the rest of the world through this gateway. BSCCL provides bandwidth to these organizations.
About 50% of the country's bandwidth is comes through them. The rest comes through six International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) providers. Although the bandwidth of the submarine cable was reduced, the service of the ITCs remained normal.
There are 34 IIG service providers in the country.
President of Bangladesh ISP Association Emdadul Haque said: "Many internet customers in the country are facing problems with speed. However, it is not possible to say in which area the problem is acute.”
