BD joins consortium of 15 telecom operators

The country has joined the consortium of 15 telecom operators to install new submarine cable system to connect 17 countries from Asia and Europe.

Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) as one of the members of the consortium signed a deal in this regard at Kuala Lumpur recently.   

The South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5) of the consortium will be the latest 100G technology to provide a total design capacity of 24,000 Gbps (gigabit per second). The consortium is expecting to make the cable operational by 2016. The length of the cable will be 20,000-km.

BSCCL sources said telecom secretary Abu Bakar Siddique who is also chairman of BSCCL and BSCCL Managing Director Monwar Hossain from Bangladesh were present at the deal signing ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.

In Bangladesh part, the cost would be nearly US$53 million for the project. Of the total cost, the BSCCL will provide US$25 million and the remaining portion will be managed in the form of loan.

At present, the country depends on only one undersea cable which is SEA-ME-WE4 that connected 13 countries.

Industry people think that the SEA-ME-WE 5 will contribute to country's sustainable growth and development for broadband based service and enhance ultra broadband access to the people. It will also ensure quality service for cloud computing and fulfilling limitless video demand.  

Other members of the consortium are China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, China United Network Communications Group Company, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (PJSC), Orange, Myanma Posts and Telecommunications, Saudi Telecom Company, SingTel, Sri Lanka Telecom, TOT, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International, Telecom Italia Sparkle, Telekom Malaysia Berhad and Yemen International Telecommunications (TeleYemen).