6 applications dropped for private submarine cable license

The government has taken initiative to issue licenses for submarine cable at the private sector level so that the country's internet bandwidth demand, which is growing at a geometric rate, does not fall short in any way. To implement this initiative, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Authority extended the deadline for license application on March 29. As per the extended deadline, applications for licenses have been submitted by six companies till Tuesday (May 10). According to sources, this time a ‘beauty contest’ will be held with the applications. Then the two organizations will be selected judging the suitability of getting the license. According to BTRC sources, Summit Communications Limited, Fiber at Home Limited, CDnet Technologies Limited, Mango Teleservices Limited, Total Solutions Limited and Metacor Subcom have submitted applications for submarine cable licenses. However, after the announcement of the names, Mohiuddin Ahmed, president of the Mobile Phone Subscribers Association in Bangladesh, drew the attention of the media and said that the tenders for the new submarine cable have been invited by a number of companies which have NTTN, IIG and other licenses. The most important thing here is to make sure that monopoly business is not created in any way. Or no one can create a volatile situation in the country by taking this service as hostage. Regarding this concern, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Mostafa Jabbar told DG Bangla that there is no reason for this baseless fear. The demand for internet bandwidth in the country has not been reduced and the licenses have been opened in the private sector to create opportunities for the private sector to enter this business. But this is not a vegetables business; Therefore, the license will be given only after verifying the ability of those who have applied. Meanwhile, ISPAB welcomed the initiative to issue licenses to the two companies as per the policy. This initiative has given them hope as well as increased demand. As a result, Nazmul Karim Bhuiyan, secretary general of the organization, has given his opinion in favor of giving licenses to all the applicants to bring back the market competition in the free market economy. He said that the initiative taken by the government to privately license submarine cable instead of BSCCL, a government company, was commendable in the interest of the free market. However, we hope that the government will give this license to more than two companies or those who will be considered eligible in the application. This will make it possible to maintain affordable prices and services in the market. In this context, a guideline titled 'Build, Operate and Maintain Submarine Cable in Bangladesh' has also been prepared in the interest of issuing cyber cable licenses. According to the guidelines, the two private sector companies that will be licensed for submarine cable will have at least 4 years or 48 months to start operations. However, before that Bangladesh will be connected to the third submarine cable (SEA-ME-WE 6). These are being operated under the supervision of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL). SEA-ME-WE 4, SEA-ME-WE 5 and SEA-ME-WE 6, all three will be government submarine cables. In other words, the private companies are out of these three. In this regard, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications said, "With the amount of bandwidth that will come in SEA-ME-WE 6, our demand will be well met. Even if there is no new submarine cable till 2030. Even then we have opened up the business to the private sector. If an organization gets a license by showing qualifications, it will definitely be a positive aspect. It can be noted that the first submarine cable commissioning in the country was done in early 2006. And on September 23 last year, Bangladesh signed the SEA-ME-WE 6 consortium. The 15 companies participating in the SEA-ME-WE 6 consortium include: Singtel Singapore; BSCCL Bangladesh; Telecom Malaysia; SLT Sri Lanka; Dhiragu Maldives; NITUI India; TWA Pakistan; Djibouti Telecom; Djibouti Mobile; Chai Global Limited China; Unicom China; Microsoft, United States; Telecom Egypt, Egypt; and Orange France. And through this consortium, the supply of bandwidth will start by 2024. Then 13.2 terabytes of bandwidth will come to the country through this cable. At that time, the country will need more than 6,000 Gbps (gigabits per second) of international bandwidth.