Italian firm backs off from bandwidth import as govt dithers

Telecom Italia Sparkle, an Italian company, took back its offer to import internet bandwidth from Bangladesh as the government was taking too long in giving the final approval. 

The company sought to lease 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) of international bandwidth from the unused capacity of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company.

At present, the state-owned company is using only 32 Gbps of its total capacity of 200 Gbps.

The Bangladesh Submarine Cable board had approved the proposal from Sparkle for 10 Gbps for $14,000 a month and forwarded the proposal to the telecom division for final approval.

The division then placed it before Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the last week of May, as she is in charge of the telecom ministry.

The Bangladesh Submarine Cable authority has now got the final confirmation but Sparkle is refusing to ink the one-year deal, having already made alternative arrangements due to the delay in Bangladesh's end.

Monowar Hossain, managing director of Bangladesh Submarine Cable, confirmed Sparkle's retraction from the deal.

Earlier in February, the Italian company offered to buy half of Bangladesh Submarine Cable's capacity but the government turned down the offer due to the low price.

Sparkle wanted to buy four million MIU*km (minimum investment unit) bandwidth -- which would be about 90 Gbps -- of the state-owned firm's total 8.9 million MIU*km for Tk 16 crore for the rest of the cable's lifetime.

A submarine cable usually lasts 20-25 years, and this cable has been in operation since 2006.

The Italian company then came back with a fresh proposal in May, in which it raised the offer price but cut back on the bandwidth demand to 10 Gbps.

Md Faizur Rahman Chowdhury, the telecom division secretary and chairman of Bangladesh Submarine Cable board, refused to comment on the matter.

In February 2014, the government took the decision to export half of the country's unused bandwidth.