বুধবার, ২৭শে মার্চ, ২০২৪ খ্রিস্টাব্দ ১৩ই চৈত্র, ১৪৩০ বঙ্গাব্দ

Saudi Arabia seeks bandwidth from Bangladesh

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Deals with Bhutan, Nepal to export surplus bandwidth also on the cards

Saudi Arabia and Bhutan have expressed a keen interest in purchasing bandwidth from Bangladesh, Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar said on Tuesday.

He also said negotiations to export bandwidth to Bhutan were only a contract signing away, which may inspire Nepal to follow suit.

The minister made the remarks after the government on the day approved a Tk693.2 crore project to set up the country’s third submarine cable, to meet the fast-growing demand for connectivity.

According to the Department of Telecommunications, Bangladesh is exporting 10 Gbps bandwidth to the Indian state of Tripura, as the eastern Indian states are hilly and have poor network connectivity. As a result, bandwidth transport to the area is quite expensive for India, especially from Mumbai or Chennai.

“If we want to export more bandwidth, we don’t have to create new access points. We can provide bandwidth to Bhutan and Nepal from Kuakata, and to the eastern Indian states from Cox’s Bazar,” Jabbar added.

With the installation of the new submarine cable, Bangladesh will get 6 terabyte per second of bandwidth, boosting internet speed and helping launch 5G services in the country.

Bangladesh now uses 1,600 Gbps bandwidth, as compared to 300 Gbps at the end of 2016. The country has a bandwidth capacity of 2,600 Gbps from two submarine cables, and the third cable will add another 7,200 Gbps.