FE Report
Bangladesh will sign the final deal with a consortium of 18 countries on March 7 for being connected with the 2nd undersea submarine cable by 2016.
Chairman of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) Abu Bakar Siddique and managing director Monwar Hossain will represent the country in the signing programme in Malaysia, sources said.
The consortium - SEA-ME-WE-5 - (South East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe - 5) has a capacity of 1,400 GBPS. The BSCCL MD said the country will be connected with the 2nd undersea submarine cable by signing the deal with the consortium of 18 nations.
He told the FE that the connectivity will be a great input for the country's high-speed telecommunication services.
Subsequently, business volume of different IT firms will increase dramatically, and call centres, software firms and outsourcing companies will experience a remarkable growth, he added.
Sources said SingTel and China Telecom are mainly handling the consortium of SEA-ME-WE-5 along with AAE-1.
The firms that lay undersea fibre optic cable may take two years for installation of the 2nd undersea submarine cable. The total process will be completed by early 2016, according to BSCCL.
Installation cost for Bangladesh part of the cable would be nearly US$53 million. Of the total cost, BSCCL will provide $25 million, and the remaining amount will be managed through loan. BSCCL is expecting to get loan from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for the project.
Earlier, the project cost was estimated $48 million.
The BSCCL MD said connectivity line of the first submarine cable at Cox's Bazar was 1,260 km. But the second one will need only 300 km, as Myanmar has agreed to join the consortium.
