Summit, Fiber@Home at work to transit bandwidth to India

ISMAIL HOSSAIN | Published: February 03, 2024 23:26:08

Bangladesh's two international terrestrial cable (ITC) licensees - the Summit Communications and the Fiber@Home Global Limited - are working to transit bandwidth to northeastern states of India very soon.
The Bharti Airtel and the Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) will be partner in the transit process in India and Bangladesh.
The Summit has sent an application to the foreign ministry for approval. If it gets nod, the telecom regulator will move ahead.
On the other hand, a BSCCL technical committee has approved a proposal of the Fiber@Home for purchasing bandwidth to transit to India.
If the proposal gets the final approval, the Fiber@Home will purchase one Tera (one thousand Gbps) bandwidth at a discount rate in phases.
To give the proposal a go, the BSCCL board of directors will have to approve it and then the Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has to approve it.
The BSCCL has given the opinion that it can give maximum 10-percent discount for bandwidth subject to the approval of the board meeting while the Fiber@Home sought 25 to 35-percent discount.
"The proposal is still at a primary stage, there is a long way to go," Mashiur Rahman, chief operating officer of the Fiber@Home, told The Financial Express.
Although the proposal of the Fiber@Home is at a very initial stage, the proposal of the Summit at the almost final stage.
In the 279th meeting of the BTRC held on December 31, the issue has been raised for discussion.
The committee has approved the proposal on condition of approval from the foreign ministry.
Summit MD and CEO Arif Al Islam said if the Summit gets approval, it is a matter of three months to start the groundwork process.
"Initially, we want to transit 100 Gbps for first three years and later we will increase volume on the demand from the market," he said.
He further said that the transit is the first attempt from the private sector.
Earlier, state-owned Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) made an attempt to transit bandwidth to India, but it failed for various reasons, including proper marketing.
According to informed sources, the process begins when the Bharti Airtel applied to the foreign ministry through India's ministry of external affairs to get the international private leased circuit (IPLC) transit connection through the Summit in December 2022.
In view of this, in the same month, a letter was sent to the secretary at the department of posts and telecommunications to take cognisance of the matter and further action.
In view of the letter, the commission held meeting twice with the Summit. The Summit made a presentation at the meeting chaired by the director general of the Engineering and Operations (E&O) Division at the commission.
In March last year, the Summit applied to the commission, seeking permission to grant IPLC transit connectivity in favour of the Bharti Telecom.
The bandwidth transit connection, vital for internet services in the northeastern region of India, known as the 'Seven Sisters,' is currently established through submarine cables connecting to Singapore via Chennai.
This involves traversing a total distance of 5,500km to reach the Chennai Submarine Cable Landing Station from the northeastern part of India and then covering a total distance of 8,700km to finally reach Singapore.
Consequently, the optical latency is approximately 55 milliseconds to Chennai and 87 milliseconds to Singapore.
The Bharti Airtel and the Summit propose a more efficient solution that would reduce the distance by about 3,700 km, resulting in a latency of 50 to 52 milliseconds.
The Summit, as an ITC licensee, plans to establish a Terrestrial Cable Landing Station (TCLS) on the Akhaura border, providing connectivity across the Bangladesh border to India's Agartala border.
As an NTTN licensee, the Summit will then connect from TCLS to the Submarine Cable Landing Station in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) will further extend the connection to Singapore through Cox's Bazar and Kuakata Submarine Cable Landing Stations.
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