Internet speed back to normal

Internet services across the country returned to normal early yesterday after 12 hours of disruption due to damage caused by an excavator to the country's second submarine cable on Sunday.

Two of five accused, including the brother of a union parishad chairman, in a case filed over the incident were arrested yesterday.

Normal services resumed around 12:17am Monday morning after the damaged part near Kuakata submarine cable landing station in Patuakhali district were repaired, said Moshiur Rahman, managing director of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL).

"We were able to fully repair the submarine cable line around 12:00am and resumed operations around 12:17am," said the BSCCL MD.

The underground cable line was damaged at Alipur under the district's Kalapara upazila around noon on Sunday when some local workers were operating an excavator.

Workers pulled out 25 feet of the cable from five feet below the surface, said BSCCL Deputy General Manager Md Tariqul Islam.

Harun-or-Rashid, security officer of the submarine cable landing station in Kuakata, filed a case accusing five with Mohipur Police Station in this regard on Sunday night.

Yesterday, police held two of the accused -- Md Hossen Molla, 40, and Abul Hossain, 35 -- from Alipur, said Md Monir Hossain, officer-in-charge of the police station.

Hossen is the younger brother of Ansar Uddin Mollah, chairman of Latachapli union parishad.  

Ansar had employed the labourers to excavate the earth to fill a piece of land next to the landing station, Tariqul had said on Sunday.

"We are trying our best to arrest the others accused in the case," said the OC.

The cable provides nearly 40 percent of the total bandwidth used in the country. Due to the damage, consumers had been experiencing slow internet service.

The 20,000km cable system connects 19 countries from Singapore to France.