The state-run Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited will sell bandwidth to the local internet service providers by launching the internet protocol transit service.
As per the new service the BSCCL will buy bulk bandwidth from the large vendors and sell it to the local International Internet Gateway service operators and Internet Service Providers.
Currently the IIG and ISP operators purchase the tiny amount of bandwidth individually from different foreign vendors which cost them higher price and also incur carrying cost.
The BSCCL’s IP transit service will offer a one-stop service for the bandwidth selling which will reduce the operational hazard of the local operators.
‘We will buy bulk bandwidth which will cost us less than the IIGs are paying now. So, we will be able to give them bandwidth at lower price,’ BSCCL managing director Md Monwar Hossain told New Age.
He said the BSCCL had already signed a contract with Telecom Italia Sparkle for buying 10,000 mbps bandwidth which will be brought from France and Singapore.
‘If we can provide the bandwidth at lower price, then the end users will get the service at lower price and that is one of our core aims to launch this service,’ he said.
He said the move will also save foreign currency as the IIG operators will pay in local currency for the bandwidth price.
The BSCCL board recently approved the tariff packages for launching IP transit service with different tariff structure for the IIG and IPS operators.
The proposal was sent to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission for approval.
As per the proposal, the IIG operators will have to pay monthly charge to BSCCL ranging from Tk 1,400 per mbps to Tk 2,900 per mbps for using the STM1, STM4, STM16 and STM64.
The ISP providers’ tariff structure will range from Tk 2,000 per mbps to Tk 4,300 per mbps for availing the four types of STM service provided by the BSCCL.
At present, a service provider has to pay Tk 8,000 for every mbps of bandwidth. The government has reduced the price four times during its tenure.
Before 2007 the costing was Tk 75,000 per mbps which was reduced to Tk 27,000 per mbps during the tenure of the interim government in 2008.
-With New Age input
