BTRC rejects proposal for bandwidth transit to India’s northeast
Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has declined a proposal to provide transit for bandwidth through Bangladesh to India’s northeastern seven states
The approval process for the proposal had progressed significantly and was on the verge of finalisation. Sources at BTRC believe that the deal failed to go through due to the political changes on August 5.
The initiative to establish the bandwidth infrastructure was jointly undertaken by two International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) operators, Summit Communications and Fiber at Home, along with Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel during the tenure of the Awami League government.
Bharti Airtel had submitted the proposal to Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which subsequently forwarded it to the Post and Telecommunication Division and then to BTRC for evaluation.
The plan involved setting up a Terrestrial Cable Landing Station (TCLS) at the Akhaura border by Summit and Fiber at Home. From this TCLS, fiber cables were to connect to the submarine cable landing stations of the Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited in Cox’s Bazar and Kuakata, enabling services to extend to Singapore.
From the TCLS on the border, Bharti Airtel intended to provide high-speed internet services to the northeastern states of Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, and Meghalaya.
However, high-ranking officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the matter's sensitivity, indicated that the transit would offer minimal benefits to Bangladesh. The primary beneficiaries would have been Summit Communications and Fiber at Home, businesses aligned with the ousted Awami League government. The real advantage would have gone to India.
Currently, India’s northeastern states are about 5,500 kilometers away from the Chennai submarine cable landing station, with Singapore located an additional 8,700 kilometers beyond. The mountainous terrain within India makes it challenging and expensive to establish and maintain fiber networks in these areas. Due to this extended distance, the latency is 55 milliseconds for connections to Chennai and 87 milliseconds for connections to Singapore.
