Fifth submarine cable to be laid by 2033: Finance Minister
The government is going to take up the fourth submarine cable project by 2028 and the fifth by 2033 to meet the growing bandwidth demand. At the same time BTCL's optical fiber network is being developed and expanded utilizing 5G.
On Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 3 pm, Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali informed the plan in the budget session of the Parliament. The session was presided over by Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, Speaker of the Parliament.
While presenting the 53rd budget in the parliament, the finance minister said that the government is working to enrich the technology sector for the preparation of the fourth industrial revolution and to face the global situation of the future. In the last 15 years, two million youths have been employed in the IT sector as a result of achieving the goal of Digital Bangladesh. Price of Internet has greatly reduced and expanded web-based employment and business opportunities. In 2008, the minimum price of fixed internet bandwidth per Mbps was 27 thousand taka, now it is only 60 taka.
The finance minister said that the number of mobile financial wallet users is now over 12 crores, saying that low-cost high-speed internet has been extended to the union to deliver its benefits to rural areas. More than 16 thousand entrepreneurs, including 5 thousand 344 women and 8500 post e-centers in more than 9 thousand digital centers are active across the country. Apart from this, more than 2400 services have been digitized to ensure access to services from any place at any time.
He said, to meet the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution, our aim is to attract one billion US dollars foreign investment in the information technology sector with the creation of at least one million smart jobs in the next five years. With that goal in mind, by 2031, initiatives will be taken to increase capacity in frontier technology in all sectors of the economy, and frontier technology-based research centers will be built focusing on technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, including artificial intelligence, cyber security, robotics, semiconductors, electric vehicles, space and geospatial technologies. Exports of the ICT sector will increase to $5 billion in the next five years and $50 billion by 2041.
The minister said that the work of ensuring uninterrupted high-speed internet and transmission network across the country as an information technology highway in building a developed and smart Bangladesh by 2041 is ongoing. For this purpose, the network is being improved and expanded through the optical fiber network development project of BTCL for the utilization of 5G.
The finance minister also told the parliament that the extension of the underground optical fiber cable network has increased to 39 thousand 200 km in the construction of the backbone of the country's telecommunication and information technology services and it is increasing gradually. Due to the availability of internet, its number of subscribers has increased from 40 lakhs in 2008 to about 12.92 crores at the end of January. During this time, the density of Internet in Bangladesh has increased to 75.12 percent, which was only 2.7 percent in 2008.
Besides, 8 thousand 500 post offices have been converted into digital postal centers, the finance minister said, modern facilities and 14 mail processing centers will be constructed at 14 places in the country for the purpose of building smart post offices.
