Talks on to export internet bandwidth to Bhutan

Bhutan reopened talks with Bangladesh to find ways to import internet bandwidth from state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd.

A seven-member team headed by Pema Dhendup, a Bhutanese government expert, is now in Cox's Bazar to check out the landing station of BSCCL's lone submarine cable, South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 or SEA-ME-WE 4.

"Things are moving very fast and we think we will reach some sort of an agreement in the next few weeks," said Monwar Hossain, managing director of BSCCL, adding that the deal will be sealed before the country gets connected to its second submarine cable.

The team that arrived in Dhaka on September 23 will fly back to Bhutan on September 30 after attending several meetings with stakeholders and senior government officials.

The talks started on August 1, when Tarana Halim, Bangladesh's state minister for telecom, met Bhutan's Information and Communications Minister DN Dhungyel in Thimphu.

BSCCL will be connected with the second cable (SEA-ME-WE 5) in the first quarter of next year and Bangladesh will get another 1,300Gbps of internet bandwidth through it.

BSCCL has primarily selected five alternatives routes to transmit bandwidth. The routes are through Akhaura-Tripura, Sylhet-Tamabil-Shillong-Guwahati, Kurigram-Bhurungamari and two links in ‎Panchagarh-Banglabandha.

"We think Sylhet-Tamabil-Shillong-Guwahati route will be best for both the parties."

Through this route, BSCCL will have the scope to export bandwidth to Shillong and Guwahati as well, Hossain added.

The two parties will draft a preliminary agreement on the next plan of action.

BSCCL will ask for $20 for every megabyte of bandwidth; Bhutan will initially take 5 gigabits of bandwidth.

Currently, Bhutan is importing 65 gigabits of bandwidth from India. "They are now connected with fourth generation (4G) technology -- that's why Bhutanese people consume higher bandwidth per-head than us," Hossain said.

To export bandwidth to Bhutan, Bangladesh will have to use India's territory and a fibre optic cable will also need to be laid.

The issue was raised by Tarana Halim last month during her meeting with Indian Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha.

Hossain said a tri-party meeting with BSCCL, its Bhutanese counterpart and Indian state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will be organised.

BSCCL started exporting 10 gigabits of bandwidth to the Indian state of Tripura in February; the state-owned company earned $275,000 in every quarter.

Currently, BSCCL has 200-gigabits bandwidth connections, of which 130 gigabytes are used inside the country.