The government is set to start discussions on exporting internet bandwidth to Bhutan through India, officials said. 

Bhutan plans to import bandwidth from Bangladesh's Rangpur and through India's Guwahati border.

“We have gotten the green signal from India to use their territory,” said Monwar Hossain, managing director of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd, who is heading a three-member panel on the matter. 

A Bhutanese expert team will visit Bangladesh this month to initiate the discussion, he said.

The development comes after a high-powered delegation headed by Tarana Halim, state minister for telecom, recently visited Bhutan and India, along with the BSCCL chief, to discuss the issue. All the issues related to exporting bandwidth will be discussed when the Bhutanese expert team visits Dhaka, Hossain said.

Bhutan introduced internet only in 1999, after years of deliberate policy of isolation fearing outside influences would undermine its absolute monarchy, freedom and culture.

Bangladesh has been exporting 10gbps bandwidth to India's Tripura since February this year at a price of $100,000 per month.

If the demand increases, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), India's state-owned telecom company, will avail up to 40gbps bandwidth using the same infrastructure, according to the Economic Times.

During her visit to India in July, Tarana received the first cheque of $275,000 from BSNL as the bandwidth export price.

Bangladesh has a 200gbps bandwidth with the submarine cable thanks to its connection to the South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE4).

It will also be connected to a second submarine cable, SEA-ME-WE 5, in January next year, which will give another 1,300gbps to the country.

The country's domestic consumption accounts for about 130gbps.

Hossain said 1,300gbps will give a huge increase in capacity for Bangladesh. If BSCCL can not export it will face huge financial loss, he said.

Apart from Tripura, there is also demand for internet bandwidth in India's other north-eastern states, including Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagachal and Mizoram, he said.

After Bhutan, Bangladesh will seek to export bandwidth to Nepal, said a senior official of BSCCL.