India has proposed Bangladesh to buy 10 Gbps (Gigabits per second) bandwidth for its north-east state, said officials. They said a visiting delegation of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited had expressed its interest during a meeting with Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited that deals with the bandwidth. Talking to the news agency, Abubakar Siddique, secretary of Posts and Telecommunications Division, said the Indian team initially had proposed to lease 10 Gbps bandwidth and later, they would import more on the basis of usage.
‘Final agreement would be inked after settling the price and other issues,’ he added.
Four officials of BSNL, the Indian state-owned telecom service provider, will hold further talks with BSCCL today to find ways of leasing bandwidth from Bangladesh.
The delegation on Sunday met the secretary of Posts and Telecommunications Division and discussed the issue with BSCCL.
The government has taken decision to export 40 Gbps internet bandwidth in February this year with India and few others countries had showed interest for it.
Bangladesh’s lone submarine cable whose lifetime will end in the next 12 years, has a bandwidth capacity of 200 Gbps, while the country consumes only 40 Gbps for voice and data use.
The country will get another undersea cable by the end of 2015 with a capacity of 1,400 Gbps.
Not only India, some other countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Italy and Myanmar have expressed interest to use Bangladesh’s internet bandwidth.
Besides the undersea cable, Bangladesh currently has six terrestrial cables that are connected globally via India. These cables provide bandwidth support for both data and voice markets.
-With New Age input
