Bangladesh is going to connect in the third submarine cable. Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry has taken a project at a cost of Tk 693 crore in this regard.
Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) has taken an initiative to install submarine cable through SEA-ME-WE-6 consortium, sources said.
The role of submarine cable is essential for international telecommunications and information flow. The country is currently connected to the information technology highway by two submarine cables called South Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4 and Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-5. Due to various development activities of the present government, the use of internet and international bandwidth in the country has increased at a high rate in the last few years. This upward trend in bandwidth usage is expected to continue for the years to come due to the widespread expansion of Internet-dependent services.
The government has plan to launch 5G services in the country by 2021. With the launch of 5G service, the demand for international bandwidth in the country will increase at a high rate. This growing demand for bandwidth will not be met in the near future by the two existing submarine cables.
For this reason, the government has decided to join the SEA-ME-WE-6 submarine cable consortium to lay the third submarine cable in the country. Accordingly, the project titled 'Installation of the third submarine cable for the expansion of Bangladesh's international telecommunication system' was approved at the ECNEC meeting held on December 1, last year.
It is to be noted that the eastward full capacity of the two existing submarine cables will be exhausted by 2022 and in this situation if the country is not connected to a third submarine cable, there will be a danger of catastrophic internet service in the country due to the eastward (Singapore-oriented) bandwidth crisis of the submarine cable.