DHAKA: Bangladesh is expected to be connected to the second submarine cable by June, 2016 in ensuring an uninterrupted internet network and to increase speed across the country.

The country will get a 300 gigabyte bandwidth internet connection. Construction of a landing station beside the Bay of Bengal has already begun at Kuakata under Kalapara upazila in coastal district Patuakhali.

Earlier, Bangladesh joined in the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 5 (SEA-ME-WE 5) consortium march this year.

Sources of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) said the company signed a deal with 14 other foreign companies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on construction and maintenance of the cable on March this year.

The SEA-ME-WE 5 (SMW5) is a 20,000km submarine cable system connecting 17 countries through Points-of-Presence (POPs) from Singapore to the Middle East to France and Italy in Western Europe, with an ultimate system capacity of 24 Tbps (TeraBits Per Second, TeraBytes Per Second; one trillion bits or bytes per second)



At present, the country is connected to a submarine cable only to communicate with the rest of the world through internet network. Somehow the connection faces any disruption or gets disconnected; some seven to ten days are required to restore the network. As a result, the country remained disconnected with the world during this time.

Recently, the SME5 consortium has begun functioning and Bangladesh was also invited to join the operation. The project areas are India Ocean, Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Kuakata has been chosen as the ground location for the Bay of Bengal.

According to sources concerned, demand of internet bandwidths has been increased massively. If companies, which got licenses of international gateway operator, begin operation in addition to 3G services by mobile operators the demand will also extend.

At present, a 32 Gbps (GigaBits or GigaBytes per Second; One billion bits or bytes per second) bandwidth connection is being used through the only connected submarine cable. But it is impossible to meet-up increased internet demand through a connection only.

    
Next Part ** 2nd submarine cable by Jun 2016

BDST: 1526 HRS, Dec 24, 2014