Bangladesh cancels approval for bandwidth transit to India’s Seven Sisters

The approval for the transit of bandwidth to India's northeastern Seven Sisters through Bangladesh has been revoked. Two of the country’s International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) companies, Summit Communications and Fiber at Home, were set to implement the bandwidth transit in collaboration with India's telecom operator, Bharti Airtel. This information has been confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission).

Sources indicate that in 2022, Bharti Airtel applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for approval for the bandwidth transit. The ministry forwarded the matter to the telecommunications department, which then referred it to the BTRC. The BTRC had initially decided to approve the project. Following this decision, the two ITC companies got involved in implementing the process.

However, the BTRC has now directly canceled this approval. Even the letter issued by the telecommunications department granting permission for the transit has been annulled.

The Seven Sisters of India include the northeastern states of Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, and Meghalaya. The initiative aimed to provide high-speed internet to these regions via an International Private Leased Circuit (IPLC) service in collaboration with Bharti Airtel, using Bangladesh’s land as the transit route.

The connection was planned to take place through interconnection points in Brahmanbaria, Akhaura, and the no-man’s land near Agartala, India. Summit and Fiber at Home would establish a Terrestrial Cable Landing Station (TCLS) at the Akhaura border, and the fiber connection would then extend to Cox’s Bazar and Kuakata, connecting to Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company’s landing stations. From there, the IPLC service would be expanded to Singapore.

Currently, the distance from India’s Seven Sisters to the Chennai submarine cable landing station is 5,500 kilometers. In comparison, the distance to Singapore through the existing network is 8,700 kilometers. The Seven Sisters' mountainous terrain makes fiber network maintenance, creation, and upkeep challenging. Additionally, the long-distance results in a latency of 55 milliseconds, which increases to 87 milliseconds by the time it reaches Singapore, raising costs and making it challenging to provide quality service.

On the other hand, using Bangladesh as a transit route would reduce the distance by 3,700 kilometers, and the latency to Singapore would decrease by 37 milliseconds.

Sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicate that allowing such transit would weaken Bangladesh's position as a regional hub, while India would establish itself as a stronger hub. They also mentioned that there had been no preliminary discussions between Bangladesh and India regarding the IPLC transit. Consequently, there are questions about its viability, legal and commercial practicality, geopolitical context, and transparency.

Moreover, companies like Google, Akamai, Amazon, and Meta have edge PoPs (points of presence) in India’s Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai. Through IPLC transit, Indian telecom operators would be able to provide faster internet to the Seven Sisters. This could pose a challenge to the potential for bandwidth export and internet services from Bangladesh to the Seven Sisters, China’s northwest regions, and Myanmar.

In this regard, Fiber at Home Chairman Moinul Haque Siddique told Views Bangladesh that if the initiative had been implemented, Bangladesh would have begun its journey towards becoming the Southeast Internet Hub. He pointed out that 50 million people live within 5 to 10 milliseconds of Dhaka, making it a significant area.

He further explained, "Singapore is an internet hub, but they consume only 10% of the bandwidth and transmit the rest to various countries. Currently, we consume 90% of the bandwidth within our own country, which means we have to spend a lot of money on international bandwidth. If the hub concept were established, bandwidth transmission would occur through government and private submarine cables and ITCs."

Moinul Haque Siddique also said “Once this hub concept is developed, companies like Akamai, Google, Facebook, and TikTok would likely come to Bangladesh. This would significantly increase data flow in the country and make it more attractive for such companies to set up their operations here.”