There is nothing illegal or unlawful about the bandwidth export deal with the Italian company, State Minister for Post and Telecommunication Tarana Halim has said.
“I will not let anything happen that may go against our interest. If we find that the decision of exporting bandwidth is illogical, the whole process will be reviewed for the sake of the country,” she assured.
The government has recently approved a deal for exporting 57 giga bits per second (Gbps) bandwidth to an Italian company. The price quoted in the deal is 65 times lower than the prevailing rate of bandwidth in Bangladesh’s market.
While talking to the Dhaka Tribune yesterday, actor-turned-politician Tarana said: “Bangladesh will get connected to another 1,400 Gbps undersea cable by 2016. Considering that, there is an urgency about exporting as much bandwidth as early as possible.
“Moreover, the state-owned BSCCL [Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited] has set a target to increase revenue by selling the bandwidth,” she said.
According to Monwar Hossain, managing director of BSCCL, the deal is likely to be finalised in the first of week October.
The price quoted for a 15-year period in the 57 Gpbs deal with the Italian company is almost equal to the annual price quoted in another deal with India under which Bangladesh is exporting just 10 Gbps bandwidth.
BSCCL is likely to start exporting 10 Gbps bandwidth to India later this month at a rate of $10 per mbps – which is 33% higher than the domestic price – and earn $1.2m or Tk9.6 crore annually.
On the other hand, under the deal with Telecom Italia Sparkels, Bangladesh will get a one-time amount of Tk9.77 crore for selling 57 Gbps for 15 years. This is 65.6 times lower the domestic price of bandwidth in Bangladesh.
Asked about this, Monwar said: “The two deals are totally different. We are not selling connectivity to the Italian company. But in case of India, the deal has additional components such as international backhaul and transmission charges.”
Seeking anonymity, a high official of BSCCL told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that there is pressure on government to finalise the Italian deal within 10 days. “But more time will be needed to complete the total process,” the official said.
Another BSCCL official said that a specialised committee comprising renowned ICT experts from the top universities in the country had evaluated the deal.
“So, there was no scope of doing any manipulation. The decision was made on the basis of that sub-committee’s recommendations,” he said.
