JohnyBoy
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Move to export unused bandwidth to India
Published : Monday, 01 July 2013
Move to export unused bandwidth to India :: Financial Express :: Financial Newspaper of Bangladesh
Jamal Uddin
The government is seriously considering an option to export a part of the unutilised bandwidth to neighbouring India with the hope of earning a substantial amount of revenue from the sector each year, sources said.
The bandwidth will be exported mainly to the north-eastern states of India, according to a plan of the Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL).
India already expressed formally the interest to hire bandwidth from Bangladesh. In this connection, the Indian High Commission in Dhaka sent a letter to the ministry of foreign affairs (MoFA) recently offering to establish Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connectivity from Akhaura across the India-Bangladesh border.
BSCCL Managing Director (MD) Monwar Hossain admitted that his company received a copy of the letter from the Indian authority regarding the bandwidth export.
"We will sit with the Indian side soon to review their proposal in this connection," Mr Hossain told the FE Thursday.
He said the country could earn foreign revenue by exporting unutilised bandwidth as almost 80 per cent of its capacity is lying idle.
Currently, the BSCCL has the bandwidth capacity of 200 GB while the country can use nearly 42 GB for data and voice services.
Six mobile phone operators, two WiMAX companies and more than 100 small and big broadband internet service providers buy bandwidth to provide internet services to above 33 million internet subscribers. Of them, 95 per cent users are connected with the mobile internet.
The BSCCL has planned to export bandwidth through two routes. The routes are 'Dhaka-Sylhet-Tamabil-Shillong-Guwahati' and 'Dhaka-Rangpur-Kurigram-Guwahati.'
"We are planning to export the bandwidth after keeping a sufficient amount for meeting our future demand," the BSCCL MD told the FE Thursday. He mentioned that the export would not be more than 50 GB.
He mentioned that the Indian states-Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim-have a great demand for bandwidth.
At present, the BSCCL earns Tk 1.5 billion by selling bandwidth of 42 GB and the earnings will almost double if the authority is able to export the unutilised portion, sources said.
Apart from India, Bhutan and Nepal also expressed their interest to import bandwidth from Bangladesh, Mr Hossain mentioned.
Gradually, the demand for bandwidth is soaring in the country due to a rapid increase in the number of internet users and internet-based services, according to the available data.
Apart from the BSCCL, some six International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) operators have started bandwidth business as alternative sources in the country. The six operators` bandwidth capacity is not more than 50 GB.
Mr Hossain also mentioned that the ITC operators and his company have to work jointly for exporting bandwidth to the landlocked countries.
Industry insiders said Bangladesh could increase the use of bandwidth by setting up fibre optics infrastructure across the country. Even the authority could lower the bandwidth price to enhance use of the product.
The authority concerned earlier also took an initiative to export bandwidth, but it failed to do it in the absence of a proper policy in this connection.
Mr Monwar Hossain earlier told the FE that the parliamentary standing committee on telecommunication consented to export of the unused bandwidth.
Excellent Plan...
