Internet connection will be disconnected for about 20 hours on October 31 and November 2. Due to this, services will be partially disrupted across the country. Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC has expressed its advance regret for the temporary inconvenience for the country’s first submarine cable upgradation work.
It is reported that the circuits installed at Cox’s Bazar via the Southeast Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE4) submarine cable will be partially disconnected for 10 hours on October 31 from 2:00 PM to 12:00 PM and on November 2 from 2:00 PM to 12:00 PM for 10 hours.
However, the ISPs have already taken measures for bandwidth backup from ITC to keep the service uninterrupted at the customer level. ISPAB President Imdadul Haque informed that, during that time the connection speed will be a little slower but will not be disconnected. That’s why we have taken the initiative to fix the service by spending extra.
BSCPLC’s bandwidth capacity will increase significantly after the completion of the upgradation of the SEA-ME-WE4 submarine cable, the state-owned company informed in a statement on Sunday. Besides, BSCPLC provides 1700 Gbps through SEA-ME-WE5.
Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC (BSCPLC) Managing Director (Additional Charge) Mirza Kamal Ahmed said, ‘We are increasing the capacity of SEA-ME-WE4. And when a system is upgraded, existing services need to be modified. In that case, the system should be shut down for a certain period of time’.
BSCPLC is spending $3.2 million to increase the capacity of the country’s first submarine cable nearly six times to 4,600 Gbps.
About 800 Gbps of bandwidth is currently provided by this submarine cable, which was connected to Bangladesh in 2006. Its capacity is 850 Gbps.
Mirza Kamal Ahmed said, ‘Internet service of some of our customers will be stopped. However, internet service will be partially disrupted as SEA-ME-WE5 is in operation.
Incidentally, the country’s total bandwidth usage is now over 5,000 Gbps. More than half of which, or about 2,700 Gbps, comes through International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) licenses, which are imported from India through the land border. The remaining 2,400 Gbps is provided by BSCPLC through two submarine cables. BSCPLC will receive another 13,200 Gbps by 2025 from the third undersea cable SEA-ME-U6.