Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) is going to cut the wholesale price of internet bandwidth by 20% to 33% in different slabs, second time within eight months.
The state-owned BSCCL has decided to reduce its wholesale price once again to compete with the price of the bandwidth being imported from India.
Internet bandwidth imported from India through International Territorial Cable (ITC) companies had earlier forced the BSCCL to cut its wholesale price and it, however, didn’t affect the end users, accordingto the BSCCL officials.
BSCCL officials have, however, claimed that the quality of the Indian bandwidth is low, which is also destroying the local market. But the industry insiders hailedthis competition as it eventually benefited the users.
Lone submarine cable company in the country has decided to reduce its wholesale internet bandwidth price in different ten slabs. The decision has already been sent to the finance ministry for getting final approval.
According to the proposal,BSCCL has proposed 33.33% price cut in the bandwidth slab of 1900Mbps-2499Mbps, the lowest in the list.
Currently, selling price of per megabits per second (Mbps) of this slab is Tk2,280 while the proposed rate is Tk1,520. The proposal for the lowest slab from 50Mbps to 299 Mbps is Tk2,280, the current price of which is Tk2,850 per Mbps.
“We had sent the proposal to the regulator for its approval before it was sent to the finance ministry for getting final nod,” Md Monwar Hossain, managing director and chief executive officer of BSCCL, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He noted that during the last couple of years, BSCCL had slashed its tariff significantly, but the end user did not get any benefit.
BSCCL boss also informed that the board made the decision to secure their business as imported bandwidth has already eaten up the entire market.
At present, importers are selling the internet service at half a price that BSCCL offers, pushing down the demand for BSCCL’s bandwidth to 32GB from 42GB a year ago, said industry sources.
Monwar Hossain also said:“As we are going to export at least 10 Gbps internet bandwidth in some of the Eastern states of India, so the uses of bandwidth will be increased shortly.”
Currently, BSCCL has 200 Gbps capacity of internet bandwidth while a huge amount remained unused.
According to the proposal in the bandwidth slab of 7500Mbps-9999Mbps, BSCCL has proposed 31.69% price cut,which is currently selling per megabits per second (Mbps) Tk1,710 against the proposed rate of Tk1,168.
And if anyone takes more than 10Gbps bandwidth in a baulk then its price will be Tk1,036 per Mbps, which is currently Tk1,336, slashing by 20%.
