Dhaka: A Singaporean Telecommunication Company is working to connect Bangladesh with five East Asian countries through undersea cable for bandwidth sharing.

The initiative would require no cost from Bangladesh, rather pave the way for the country to export its unutilised bandwidth, said officials.  

Talking to news agency BSS, Monwar Hossain, Managing Director of the state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) which is assigned to manage country's bandwidth from the undersea cable, said “Singaporean company Blueberry Telecom has submitted a proposal to the government”.  

He said the Blueberry has planned to connect Bangladesh with Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia through its undersea cable.  

"Bangladesh wouldn't have to invest a single penny for the connectivity," said Monwar.

Accepting the proposal positively, the BSCCL managing director said Bangladesh is looking for connectivity with Myanmar, but "it was so difficult for us due to hilly areas in the boarder."  

Referring to the country's second submarine cable that is expecting to commission in next February with another 1320 gbps bandwidth, he said: "The undersea cable connectivity would be blessed for us to export unutilised bandwidth to Myanmar, a big potential market for Bangladesh."

Moreover, the Blueberry would also buy bandwidth from Bangladesh to export it to Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Indonesia, he added.  

Replying to a query, Monwar informed that Blueberry submitted the proposal to the ministry of posts and telecommunications much earlier, and the ministry forwarded it to the BSCCL.

He said a delegation of Blueberry today met with BTRC high officials to discuss about the legal issues for the connectivity.  

Bangladesh is exporting 10 gbps bandwidth to Indian State of Tripura in return for annual payment of Tk 9.6 crore.

Bangladesh has now over 200 gbps bandwidth and meeting the domestic demand, it has the capacity to export bandwidth up to 50 gbps. Now, Bangladesh is consuming only 33 percent of the total bandwidth and the total demand for bandwidth may reach at 210 gbps by 2021.

Besides, Bangladesh will be connected with second undersea cable early next year to get another 1320 gbps bandwidth.

Since the lifetime of Bangladesh's submarine cable will end within the next 12 years, there is no other alternative to exporting bandwidth.