Bangladesh relies on two submarine cables, internet price to drop 50 percent with new connection

Bangladesh remains dependent mainly on two government submarine cables — SMW-4 and SMW-5 — even as neighbouring countries connect one after another to double-digit numbers of international submarine cables. India has 19, Malaysia 23, Thailand 12 and the Philippines 19 international submarine cable connections, while Bangladesh remains stuck with only two. This gap between limited capacity and growing demand has raised concern, with sector stakeholders saying the country's digital economy could face major obstacles in the coming decade if new connections are not added on time. They believe new submarine cables would raise the country's internet usage rate by 20-30 percent, which could bring down internet prices by up to 50 percent.

This information came up at a workshop titled "Need for New Submarine Cable to Protect Digital Sovereignty and Meet Future Bandwidth Demand," held at a resort near Dhaka. The workshop, organised by the Telecom Reporters Network of Bangladesh (TRNB), was presided over by the organisation's president Masudujjaman Robin, with general secretary Faruk Hossain speaking. CDNet Communications Limited CEO Mashiur Rahman and Metacore Subcom Limited project lead Mahmud Shahed, in two separate presentations, discussed the history of submarine cables, the need for more submarine cables in Bangladesh, investment, and protection of digital sovereignty. Metacore Subcom Limited managing director Ahmed Junaid and CEO Mohammad Aminul Hakim, among others, were present at the event on Monday.

The workshop was told that international bandwidth usage in the country has increased at an unprecedented rate over the past decade. Usage stood at only 50 Gbps in 2013, rising to 0.76 terabits in 2018, 1.78 terabits in 2020, 4.2 terabits in 2022, 6.86 terabits in 2024, and around 13.5 terabits in 2026 — meaning usage has grown roughly 260 times in 13 years. Forecasts suggest this trend will intensify further. Current demand of about 13.5 terabits could reach 19.1 terabits in 2027, around 27 terabits in 2028, 54 terabits in 2030, 305 terabits in 2035 and 432 terabits by 2036. The workshop noted that video streaming, cloud services, data centres, artificial intelligence (AI), online education, digital payments and industrial digitalisation could push this demand up further.

The country's SMW-4 and SMW-5 cables currently have capacities of 4.6 and 2.5 terabits respectively, with the remaining bandwidth imported through international terrestrial cables (ITC). This over-reliance on just two submarine cables is increasing risk — any fault or maintenance issue in either cable could create major pressure on internet services nationwide. Stakeholders believe the government's third submarine cable, SMW-6, will not be sufficient in the long term even after it becomes operational, since SMW-4's operational life is due to end in 2030. Forecasts indicate the bandwidth shortfall could reach around 20 terabits by 2028.

Given this reality, sector stakeholders see approval for new private-sector submarine cables as an important solution. If the proposed cables become operational, about 51 terabits of additional capacity would be added, bringing total capacity to around 67 terabits. They believe this would increase market competition, reduce dependency on importing bandwidth from India, and create an opportunity for wholesale bandwidth prices to fall significantly.

Mohammad Aminul Hakim, CEO of Metacore Subcom Limited, said connecting to a private submarine cable would protect the country's digital sovereignty, could reduce internet prices by up to 50 percent, increase quality of service by 25-30 percent, and reduce latency.

He further said new submarine cables would raise the country's internet usage rate by 20-30 percent. In his words, the main competition in this sector is not actually among submarine cable companies, but between submarine cables and ITC (international terrestrial cable).