 At
last Bangladesh is going to be connected the much needed Submarine cable
connectivity in April 2006. Bangladesh has joined SEA-ME-WE-4 Consortium
on the recommendation of ICT Task Force, Government of Bangladesh. The consortium
includes 14 countries and 16 parties. Submarine cable covers 20,000 Km from
Singapore to France.
Countries, Parties and their landing stations are as
follows:
| Sl. # | 14 Countries | 16 Parties | Landing Stations |
| 1 | Singapore | Singapore | Tuas |
| 2 | Malaysia | Malaysia | Melaka |
| 3 | Thailand | Thailand | Satun |
| 4 | Bangladesh | Bangladesh | Cox's Bazar |
| 5 | India | (VSNL) & (Bharati) | Mumbai & Chennai |
| 6 | Sri Lanka | Colombo | Colombo |
| 7 | UAE | Fujairah | Fujairah |
| 8 | Pakistan | Karachi | Karachi |
| 9 | Saudi Arabia | Jeddah | Jeddah |
| 10 | Egypt | Alexandria | Alexandria |
| 11 | Italy | Palermo | Palermo |
| 12 | Tunisia | Bizerte | Bizerte |
| 13 | Algeria | Annaba | Annaba |
| 14 | France | (French Telecom) & (MCIF) | Marseilles |
Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (BTTB) under Ministry of Posts
and Telecommunications, Government of Bangladesh is the member of SEA-ME-WE-4
Consortium. To link the country with submarine cable network BTTB undertook
a project costing Tk.6, 280 million and out of which Tk.4, 770 million
in foreign currency. It is also estimated that annual maintenance and
operation cost would be around Tk.90 million per annum. Primarily Bangladesh
will get capacity of 10Gbps that will be enhanced by an additional eight
STM-1 for first expansion in future at no cost.
The landing station of submarine cable is at Cox’s Bazar and the
main load center is Dhaka. In order to keep connect with rest of the country
construction is being underway with high capacity optical fiber link to
Dhaka. Dhaka is already connected with all the districts either with optical
fiber or of Microwave links.
Submarine cable is now functioning on test basis and before become fully
operation the major task of BTTB is to workout a realistic plan for proper
utilization of the bandwidth and provide the service on demand through
out the country at an affordable price together with development of other
related infrastructure for uninterrupted service.
It is an established fact that ICT is playing a decisive role to strengthen
the development activity in the present world and submarine cable has
no alternative for rapid development of ICT. Govt. has already declared
ICT as the thrust sector and it is a major key-driving element for socio-economic
development.
To drive out the optimum benefit from ICT, it is essential to create
an independent state-owned entity to operate the Submarine Cable link
service instead of giving to BTTB who itself is an operator. It must have
equitable access to all i.e. public or private sectors. There must not
be any discrimination in the matter. Another crucial point is government
should discuss with ISP’s, civil society and related users to set
up a reasonable price structure that eventually help building country
wide ICT network to keep pace of development activity.
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