Bangladesh aims to link with second submarine cable by next year
Aiming to connect Bangladesh with a second submarine cable by the end of next year, a project proposal involving Tk 660.64 crore is to be placed today before the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) for approval.
Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL), tasked with installing the second submarine cable connection, plans to take a loan of $44 million (Tk 352 crore) from the Islamic Development Bank for implementing the project.
But for that, the state-run company needs permission from the Ecnec, the highest authority for approving development projects.
Of the remaining amount for the project, the government will provide Tk 166 core and the BSCCL Tk 142.64 crore.
Once the country gets its second connection, it will obtain bandwidth of more than 1,300 gigabits per second (Gbps) in addition to 200 Gbps bandwidth from the existing SEA-ME-WE-4 connection, BSCCL Managing Director Monwar Hossain told this correspondent citing a BSCCL calculation.
The country got its first submarine cable connection -- SEA-ME-WE-4 -- in 2006.
The BSCCL signed a deal with SEA-ME-WE-5, a 14-nation consortium, in March last year to get a second connection, and got approval from the cabinet committee on economic affairs in April this year.
“The project is underway but we need the government's approval for getting the loan from the IDB,” said Monwar.
The second connection would allow Bangladesh to stay online always and start full-fledged international bandwidth trade, he said.
“We need redundancy and this cable can ensure redundancy for us,” he added.
According to project documents, if there is a cut in the existing submarine cable line, it needs seven to 10 days for repair. This means Bangladesh needs redundancy from another connection.
“SEA-ME-WE-4 already passed more than half of its lifespan and we need to connect with another cable before 2025,” said Monwar.
At present, India has eight connections, Pakistan four and Sri Lanka three.
BSCCL Officials said the second submarine cable installation is likely to be completed by next year, and the landing station in Bangladesh will be at Kuakata in Patuakhali.
Half of the work at Kuakata has already been completed, they added.
According to the project proposal, the country requires a big volume of bandwidth with high speed following the launch of 3G data services. Subscribers are waiting for 4G and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) services that also need more bandwidth. It is now essential for Bangladesh to get connected with SEA-ME-WE-5.
The $44 million loan to be taken from the IDB will be payable in 10 years with a three-year grace period. The interest rate on the loan would be 4.15 percent, read the documents.
On top of that, there will be a service charge of 2.8 percent to be paid in 26 instalments.
Earlier, the IDB gave Bangladesh a loan when the country got connected with SEA-ME-WE-4 at a cost of $35.2 million in 2006. The loan was paid back in 18 instalments.
Sources said 17 companies from 14 countries have joined SEA-ME-WE-5 to get connected with the 20,000km cable line from Singapore to France.
Initially, the lifespan of the cable is set at 20 years but it could be extended by five years.
Apart from the BSCCL, the 16 other companies that joined the consortium include the Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), China Mobile, China Telecommunications, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, Orange, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Saudi Telecom Company, Telekom Malaysia and several companies from Sri Lanka, Thailand and India.