A leading optical fibre network service yesterday urged the government not to extend its November 30 deadline for removing risky overhead cables from electric poles across the capital.
“We have already laid our optical fibre networks from Uttara to the Motijheel area of the capital, setting up distribution points across all the major routes,” said Moynul Hoque Siddique, the managing director of Fiber@Home, at a press conference in the capital.
Fiber@Home, the country’s oldest of two National Telecommunications and Transmission Network (NTTN) service providers, said that it is ready to meet the government’s latest deadline to remove cables if the internet service providers (ISPs) and cable TV operators comply with the decision.
“We are fully prepared to comply with the government-provided deadline,” he said. “Nevertheless, we would require effective cooperation from the side of the ISPs and cable TV operators.”
The burying of overhead cables has been long debated in the telecommunications circles in recent months, with the internet service providers and cable TV operators repeatedly failing to comply with the government-given deadline.
The latest government postponement moved the deadline for ISPs and cable TV operators to shift their overhead cables to underground ducts to November 31.
“The full-scale service activation may not be feasible on December 1, as we have to switch on the connections phase by phase,” Moynul said.
Fiber@Home received its license for building a countrywide optical fibre network in January of 2009. It installed a 1,550 km of network across the country, touching 90 upazilas in 23 districts.
Moynul said that Fiber@Home intends to reach nearly 500 upazilas by 2015. Such infrastructure is likely to usher in better e-commerce, education and health care while removing the hazardous overhead cables in cities and avoiding network duplications, which waste foreign exchange.
Fiber@Home expects few technical issues to affect internet service on its network.
“There are always some technical problems when you switch from one technology to other, but this can easily be overcome,” Moynul said.
“Currently, we are even offering them [ISPs] point-to-point raw fibre and duct fibre. Therefore, there should not be any technological problems from their side.”
Summit Communications Ltd, the other NTTN provider, received a licence from the telecom regulator in December of 2009.
