The cabinet has approved the proposal to sign a deal on Internet bandwidth export to India’s "Seven Sisters" states.
The regular cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave the approval on Monday afternoon.
Cabinet Secretary M Mosharrof Hossain Bhuiyan briefed the reporters after the meeting at the secretariat.
He said the deal will be signed between Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India’s state-owned telecommunications company.
"Bangladesh will earn Tk9.42 crore every year through the bandwidth export. BSCCL will be able to pay the salaries of one-fourth of its staff with the money," said the cabinet secretary.
He said the tenure of the deal would be three years.
Initially, the deal is going to be finalised for exporting 10Gbps which will increase up to 40Gbps, he added.
Currently, BSCCL has 200Gbps (88MIU-km) bandwidth and Bangladesh can use only 30 Gbps of it.
Last year in February, the Bangladesh government decided to export the unused internet bandwidth following a request from India in July last year seeking 40Gbps bandwidth for their eight eastern states.
