Bandwidth Demand versus the Imperative of Data Localization

In contemporary strategic discussions surrounding Bangladesh’s telecommunications ecosystem, a specific metric is frequently invoked: an aggregate bandwidth consumption of 13 to 13.5 Terabits per second (Tbps). The narrative suggests that domestic bandwidth utilization is surging exponentially, forecasting acute structural deficits in the immediate horizon. This quantitative projection is consistently cited to rationalize increased bandwidth imports via International Terrestrial Cables (ITCs) and justify urgent capital expenditures on new submarine cable systems.

However, from an infrastructural and macroeconomic governance perspective, a fundamental question must be addressed: Does this 13 Tbps volume genuinely represent Bangladesh's actual requirement for global internet transit?

A technical analysis of data telemetry and traffic origin points reveals a markedly different operational reality. A substantial proportion of this aggregate throughput does not constitute genuine global transit. Instead, it represents cached media traffic delivered through Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). Conflating gross application throughput with un-cached international transit requirements risks distorting national infrastructure prioritization and regulatory policy.

CDN Architecture Drives 60–70% of Inbound Traffic

An evaluation of domestic internet consumption patterns clarifies the underlying dynamics. High-bandwidth streaming services, including YouTube, Meta platforms, TikTok, and international OTT services, rely fundamentally on distributed CDN infrastructures. The overwhelming majority of this material is consumed repetitively across millions of domestic endpoints.

For example, when a viral media stream is accessed by several hundred thousand users concurrently, transmitting identical packets from originating servers in North America or Europe for each session represents an inefficient architecture. Modern CDN engineering preserves a localized replica—or cache—proximate to the consumer edge, serving requests locally to minimize transit overhead.

Owing to historical limitations in domestic Tier-3 and Edge Data Center architectures, a substantial share of this cached content is routed from CDN nodes located across regional borders (principally in India) via terrestrial ITC connections. Consequently, this imported border-crossing volume is accounted for under aggregate "international bandwidth" metrics. Yet, importing cached CDN traffic across cross-border terrestrial links is architecturally distinct from pure, un-cached global internet transit.

The Strategic Imperative of Edge Data Centers

The global evolution of network architecture is decentralizing toward compute-at-the-edge, minimizing physical distances between data storage and end-users. This paradigm underpins the global deployment of Edge Data Centers and localized hyper-scale CDN points-of-presence (PoPs).

If Bangladesh aggressively expands carrier-neutral Edge Data Center infrastructure, incentivizing global content providers—such as Google, Meta, Akamai, and TikTok—to deploy sovereign local CDN clusters, the vast volumes of cross-border traffic currently imported via ITCs could be served directly within the national intranet.

Under a localized topology, when a consumer in Dhaka streams high-definition video, the request resolves at an in-country CDN server, routing packets directly to the subscriber’s ISP without traversing international transmission lines. International transit backbones would remain essential, but primarily for origin ingestion, dynamic content updates, and mission-critical enterprise links—obviating the need to consume cross-border capacity for repetitive, static media streams.

The Structural Role of Terrestrial ITCs

This technical reality does not render International Terrestrial Cables redundant. ITCs remain a strategic pillar of Bangladesh’s connectivity architecture, providing low-latency geographical diversity and essential redundancy during submarine cable outages or maintenance events.

The strategic challenge lies in auditing the composition of ITC traffic and quantifying what proportion can be localized domestically. Establishing robust domestic Edge Data Centers will systematically compress reliance on cross-border terrestrial links for cached media delivery, transitioning ITCs from handling routine consumer streaming into specialized, strategic enterprise routes.

13 Tbps Aggregate versus Pure International Transit

Isolating CDN-eligible caching from the headline 13 Tbps metric reveals that the underlying baseline for pure, un-cached global internet transit is substantially lower.

Preliminary technical estimates suggest that authentic international transit demand presently sits between 4 and 5 Tbps. This baseline encompasses enterprise cloud computing, mission-critical financial networks, global dynamic web traffic, encrypted communications, and non-cacheable data streams. This figure serves as an analytical benchmark rather than an absolute value, underscoring the necessity for regulatory authorities to publish granular telemetry segregating raw IP transit from cached CDN volumes before authorizing massive cross-border procurement expansions.

Strategic Capacity Planning: Beyond Raw Bandwidth Acquisition

National telecommunications planning must transcend the simplistic question of "How much bandwidth should we purchase?" The primary inquiry must examine: "Which data streams are crossing international borders, and why?"

Relying on recurring cross-border transit imports for content that can be sustainably hosted within domestic borders is economically inefficient. A comprehensive national strategy requires a balanced, two-pronged execution:

First, accelerate the rollout of carrier-neutral Edge Data Centers and sovereign CDN hosting facilities, thereby reducing network latency, preserving foreign currency reserves, and optimizing domestic IP routing.

Second, guarantee carrier-grade international transit redundancy through owned submarine cable consortiums.

Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC (BSCPLC), operating as a public limited company under the Posts and Telecommunications Division, anchors the nation's core transmission spine. To ensure structural redundancy, BSCPLC participates directly in two premier international submarine consortia: SEA-ME-WE 4 and SEA-ME-WE 5. Through these core systems, BSCPLC commands an active international bandwidth capacity exceeding 7,200 Gbps.

When Bangladesh landed its first submarine cable (SEA-ME-WE 4) in 2006, national international bandwidth consumption stood at a modest 150 Mbps. Today, aggregate national consumption surpasses 13,000 Gbps (13 Tbps), with BSCPLC directly supplying approximately 30 percent of total market demand. To service verified future growth, deployment operations for the third consortium system—SEA-ME-WE 6—are actively advancing. Upon commissioning, this will elevate BSCPLC’s dedicated capacity ceiling to over 41,000 Gbps by 2027.

Long-term digital sovereignty will not be secured merely through the scale of international pipes, but through the sovereign capability to localize, route, and safeguard critical data within domestic borders.

Author Profile ||  Deputy General Manager (DGM), Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC (BSCPLC), Posts and Telecommunications Division.

Editor's Note || The technical analyses and perspectives presented in this treatise represent the author’s institutional observations. Published with editorial standardization to inform national debate on telecommunications infrastructure, digital sovereignty, and data localization policies.