Summit, CDnet and Subcom got submarine cable license

In addition to government institutions, three companies have also received submarine cable licenses for internet bandwidth in the private sector. Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mustafa Jabbar, said that this license has been given to create competitive opportunities for state institutions as well as private institutions to improve market competition and customer service quality. Stakeholders welcomed this initiative but fear the imbalance in the broadband internet service market. In this regard, President of the National Association of Internet Service Providers (ISPAB) Emdadul Haque said, "We welcome the private licensing of submarine cables. We hope that this initiative will contribute to bandwidth utilization, security and competitive market. However, some licensed organizations have simultaneous transmission to AACP services. This time, the big businessmen will get bigger because of the submarine cable facility. Small traders will be under pressure. This is quite alarming for us. I hope that, those who have got the license should not do monopoly business.” When the attention of Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar was drawn to this issue, he said that licenses have been given after verifying whether they are qualified or not. It is not our concern that who has got how many licenses. And we are a country of free market economy. No one can be told here that you don't do this business. However, if someone monopolizes the market, SMP rules will be implemented in the ISP sector as well. It may be noted that, on Monday, in a letter signed by Syed Shariful Islam, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, BTRC has been instructed to issue submarine cable licenses in the name of Summit Communications Limited, CDnet Communications Limited and Metacore Subcom Limited. As a result, the remaining 3 companies those applied – Fiber@Home Limited, Mango Teleservices Limited and Total Solutions Limited were knocked out of the license race. According to the sources, based on the highest marks obtained in the assessment of the evaluation committee formed by the commission among the 6 institutions received from BTRC, the submarine cable is in accordance with the provisions of Section 36 (1) of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulation Act, 2001 (Amended 2010) and Clause 4.5 of the revised Submarine Cable Systems and Services Guidelines. Systems and services licenses are issued in the name of these three companies to the Chairman of BTRC for license issuance.