Fund constraint prevented Bangladesh from joining an international consortium to link up with a trans-pacific submarine cable network as a back-up to its existing SEA-ME-WE-4 cable link. Telekom Malaysia is leading the consortium, comprising 17 major international telecommunications providers, to build the high-bandwidth optical fibre submarine cable system linking the South-East Asian region directly with the USA.

Other member of the consortium are AT&T Inc (USA), Bharti AirTel (India), Government of Brunei Darussalam (Brunei), British Telecom Global Network Services (UK), CAT Telekom (Thailand), Eastern Telecommunications Philippines Inc (Philippines), Indosat (Indonesia), Pacific Communications Pte Ltd (Cambodia), Philippines Long Distance Telephone Co (Philippines), PT Telkom (Indonesia), Saigon Postal Corporation (Vietnam), StarHub (Singapore), Telstra (Australia), Telecom New Zealand International (New Zealand), Viettel (Vietnam) and Vietnam Post & Telecommunications Group of Vietnam (Vietnam).

An agreement was signed by the consortium’s members on April 27 in Malaysia to build the 20,000-kilometre-long cable system, known as the Asia-America Gateway, at an approximate cost of $500 million. Alcatel Submarine Network and NEC Corporation were awarded the contract for the construction of this link. The AAG cable system is designed to provide a capacity of up to 1.92 terabits per second of data bandwidth, utilising the Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing technology, which enables it to provide upgradeable future proof transmission facilities that support internet and e-commerce traffic. Upon its completion, the system will initially have a capacity of 480 gigabits per second to meet the present and future requirements for telecommunications services.

Earlier, the TM also invited Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board, the state-owned telecom operator, to join the network that will connect 10 locations in 8 countries across the Asia Pacific region, namely Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, Guam and Hawaii with the US West Coast. The AAG is expected to begin carrying commercial traffic by December 2008.

Officials of BTTB said that upon receiving the invitation, it forwarded the proposal to the posts and telecommunications ministry for a policy decision, which did not receive a positive response as the government felt that it would require a huge amount of money to lay a cable from the Cox’s Bazar landing station to Thailand, the nearest point of the AAG cable from Bangladesh. ‘The government does not have enough money for linking up the AAG cable system, though we badly need to join another submarine cable to provide an invaluable back-up to the SEA-ME-WE-4 link,’ said an official. The government commissioned the undersea cable as part of a consortium of 16 international telecom operators at a cost of around Tk 700 core.

‘Since the country is now linked with just one submarine cable, SEA-ME-WE-4, the BTTB cannot guarantee an infallible connection, which compels the internet service providers and the telecom companies to maintain satellite links as emergency back-ups,’ the official pointed out. ‘If Bangladesh links up with another undersea cable, the local telecommunications industry will enjoy a seamless overseas connection even if one of the two cable links gets accidentally snapped,’ said the official.