Bangladesh is likely to connect with a third submarine cable by the next three years, says Telecoms and ICT Minister Mustafa Jabbar.
“The consortium for SEA-ME-WE-6 is being formed. Bangladesh was asked whether it wants to be a part of it and we have responded,” he told Bangla Tribune on Monday (Jan 21). “We hope to get bandwidth from the SEA-ME-WE-6 by the next two to three years.”
The government has no plans for Bangladesh’s own submarine cable, said the minister. “It’s very expensive. Besides that, it means we have to lay our own cables up to somewhere like Myanmar or Singapore. Getting on board the consortium is the feasible option.”
Jabbar, however, said private sectors are open to invest in submarine cable. “We will open up the sector.”
Bangladesh got connected with the first undersea cable South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) in 2006 and with the second one SEA-ME-WE 5 in 2017.
Bangladesh spent about Tk 5 billion for the first cable and earned more than what it spent through the state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company.
The second cable cost the country Tk 6.6 billion and the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank lent $44 million for the project.
In the early 1990s, Bangladesh had rejected a proposal for free connection with the SEA-ME-WE-3.