The state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited- BSCCL has earned Tk. 441 crore 74 lakh in the fiscal year 2021-22. As a result, the company’s net profit after tax in the last financial year has been Tk. 250 crore. The government has received a dividend of Tk. 56 crore in the financial year 2021-22 from the company. Submarine Cable Company’s revenue in 2017-18 financial year i.e. five years ago was Tk. 1 crore 40 lakh 50 thousand.
Md Azam Ali, Managing Director of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, informed this information to the Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar in a function organized after the annual general meeting of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company at Hotel Intercontinental in the capital on Saturday.
While speaking as the chief guest on the occasion, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications referred to the submarine cable as a very essential telecommunication infrastructure of the country. The Minister emphasized the need to develop Submarine Cable Company as a timely technology efficient organization to face the challenges of the future.
He said, as a state institution, the submarine cable company has a responsibility to the country and people. For this purpose, the minister highlighted the initiatives taken by the government to provide affordable internet to the people.
The minister said, in 2008, the cost of internet bandwidth per Mbps was Tk. 27 thousand. We have reduced the cost of internet to Tk. 240 to make the cost of internet affordable to the people. The government of that time rejected the proposal of submarine cable connection to Bangladesh for free in 1992 and kept Bangladesh 14 years behind the information technology world.
Mustafa Jabbar, the pioneer of digital technology development, said that Bangladesh has not only overcome that backwardness with the Digital Bangladesh Program announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2008, but also the high-speed broadband connections are being delivered to every union of the country, including Haors, Islands, Chars and remote mountainous areas. He said in 2008 only 7.5 Gbps internet was used in the country and there were only 7 lakh users. Currently, 13 crore people are using internet in the country and 3840 Gbps bandwidth is being used. Among these, Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company is providing 2400 Gbps bandwidth alone. The remaining bandwidth is provided by International Terrestrial Cable Companies (ITC). The third submarine cable connection for Bangladesh is another historic achievement of Bangladesh in the digital technology world, said the promoter of Bengali language in computers. Mr. Mustafa Jabbar, highlighting the success of the Department of Posts and Telecommunications in implementing the promises made in the election manifesto by launching the Bangabandhu Satellite-2 in space, launching the 5G network and connecting the third submarine cable, said that we have started working on the implementation of the promises since 2019.
The telecom minister said the country may require more than 6000 Gbps of international bandwidth by 2025.
“We have and will continue to have enough bandwidth even after meeting our own needs,” he said. The Minister of Posts and Telecommunications said that bandwidth is being exported to France, Saudi Arabia and India’s Tripura to meet the increased network demand in the country. The minister said that the process is underway to export bandwidth to Bhutan and Nepal and Assam and Meghalaya in India.
He mentioned that an additional 13200 Gbps bandwidth will be connected in 2025 when the third submarine connection is completed. In addition, the first submarine cable is connecting another 3800 Gbps bandwidth, which is almost 5 times more than the current capacity. Post and Telecommunication Minister termed the Internet as the highway of digital Bangladesh and highlighted the government’s program to provide network facilities to every region to ensure the digital lifestyle of the people of the country.
Chairman of Bangladesh Submarine Company Limited, Posts and Telecommunications Secretary Md. Khalilur Rahman, Vice Chairman of BTRC Mohiuddin Ahmed and Managing Director of Teletalk Habibur Rahman along with senior officials of Posts and Telecommunications Division were present on the occasion. Managing Director of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Md. Azam Ali presented the keynote speech at the event.