3 private submarine cables for Bangladesh: capacity 45,000 Gbps

Three local companies are set to spend Tk 2,000 crore collectively for the first private submarine cable that will connect Bangladesh with the outside world for data transmission.

Three separate fiber pairs will be connected directly on the Bangladesh-Singapore route in one cable to save the total cost. Each pair has a capacity of 15,000 Gbps with 25 years longevity.

The three private licensees of submarine cable-Summit Communications, CdNet Communications and Metacore Subcom Ltd -- have already completed the core activities in this regard. Authorities concerned said they already have completed the policy and administrative procedures. The companies received the Private Submarine Cable Systems and Services License in September 2022.

They have formed a consortium to install the cable, which will have the capacity to supply 45,000Gbps bandwidth and this will be added with the current one by the middle of 2025.

Singapore-based Campana will provide a connection to the Sigmar cable, a 1900-km long cable system connecting Singapore and Myanmar. The three companies will pay about $35 million and will get indefensible rights of use for 25 years.

The place for the landing station has already been finalized. The formalities of buying this place will also be completed within the month. This station is within two kilometers from the sea shore. Even though, the companies are allowed to lay their own fiber cable from the station to Dhaka, it is being considered to be done by NTTN company.

Mohammad Aminul Hakim, director of Metacore, said, "Now a handsome amout is being spent to import bandwidth from India. This cost will decrease when the new cables are connected. The ITCs will take the bandwidth, the IIGs will take it."

When asked how the bandwidth volume will be in the beginning, he said, "It is not yet decided how many Gbps the companies will start with. It will depend on the market demand at the time of release. Each will deploy individually. Let's say someone installs a 10,000 Gbps switch and starts with that amount of bandwidth. Later, if the capacity is increased according to the demand, then the bandwidth will increase."

A senior official of CDNet Communications said, "Their cable is of short distance. The distance from Singapore to Cox's Bazar is 3,000 kilometers. Their cable latency is low, at least 10 milliseconds less than BSCPLC. In Singapore, this latency will be 30 milliseconds. On the other hand, BSCPLC has about 50 milliseconds on the first cable and 40 milliseconds on the second cable."

Bangladesh is a member of the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) consortium, the first undersea cable with which Bangladesh was connected in 2006. It supplies about 800Gbps bandwidth.

The BSCPLC supplies 1,500Gbps through the SEA-ME-WE 5, the connection for which was established in 2017.

The company is set to receive 13,200Gbps from a third undersea cable, SEA-ME-WE 6, by 2025.
Also, the BSCPLC is going to spend $3.2 million to raise the capacity of its first undersea cable by nearly six times to 4,600Gbps.

The project cost for SEA-ME-WE 6, the BSCPLC's third cable, was set at Tk 1,055 crore.