The Indian state of Assam has expressed interest in getting internet bandwidth from Bangladesh. Assam Electronics Development Corporation Limited, a company owned by the State Government of Assam, expressed this interest. Secretary of the Indo-Bangla Council Suneet KP presented a letter of interest to the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Mostafa Jabbar at his Bangladesh Secretariat office on Wednesday.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister assured Suneet KP that there was no problem with our bandwidth exports. In this regard, the Minister directed the concerned agencies to take up the process of exporting bandwidth to Assam. Once the proper process is completed, Assam has to establish cable connection from Tamabil in Sylhet to Guwahati via Dauki in Meghalaya.
The Minister assured the delegates that Bangladesh would set up alternative lines to ensure uninterrupted connectivity to Tamabil. Earlier, during a visit to India by a delegation led by a Minister of the Government of Bangladesh, Suneet KP informed the Minister that Assam was discussing the issue of importing bandwidth from Bangladesh.
The Minister of Posts and Telecommunications termed the Internet as the highway of Digital Bangladesh and highlighted the program taken by the government to extend network facilities to every region to ensure digital lifestyle of the people of the country.
The Minister said that in line with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visionary initiative, Digital Bangladesh program, high speed broadband network has been extended to almost every union of the country and 4G network has been extended to 98% of the country. In the meantime, 5G spectrum has been auctioned and 5G has been launched as well.
He said that in 2008, only 7.5 Gbps bandwidth was used in the country and the number of users was only 8 lakh. Prior to the break of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, 1000 Gbps internet was used in the country.
At present, it has increased to 3440 Gbps and the number of users has increased to about 13 crore, the minister said. He said broadband was being exported to Saudi Arabia, India and Bhutan after meeting the growing demand for the network in the country.
He said Bangladesh has started work on connecting the third submarine cable. He added that an additional 13,200 Gbps bandwidth would be added once the third submarine connection was completed. He informed about increasing the capacity of SEA-ME-WE-4 and SEA-ME-WE-5, and thus, the additional bandwidth will be sufficient to meet the need till 2030.