Bangladesh finally logs on to submarine cable

*reverse_swing* · #1 March 18, 2004, 07:07 AM

Signs deal with 12 other countries March 27
Daily Star Report

After four years of dilly-dallying, Bangladesh is finally signing on March 27 a submarine cable agreement with 12 other countries that will open a high-speed, low-priced internet and telecommunications gateway to the users from June 2005.

Bangladesh's entry to the 13-member consortium, SEA-ME-WE-4 in acronym, will slash internet and long-distance telephone call costs and greatly boost browsing speed. The county will have a 10-gigabyte data transfer capacity a second, 68 times more than the current capacity.

The capacity is considered adequate for the next 10 years and the submarine cable has a life of 15 years. State telecoms monopoly Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) and over 100 internet service providers (ISP) between them now have a 150-megabyte data transfer capacity each second.

"The BTTB alone commands 83-megabyte capacity," said a BTTB official, wishing anonymity. The ISPs will no longer have to depend on Singapore-based costly satellite data transfer, as BTTB will offer them with lease facilities.

The consortium -- South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe-4 -- seeks to begin the cable connection from Singapore running through Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, a number of middle eastern countries and will end in France.

The submarine cable link is also said to provide the infrastructure for large-scale software export and scopes for investment to establish IT-enabled value-added service e.g. call centre, tele-medicine, distance education at overseas universities.

The Executive Committee for National Economic Council (Ecnec) at a meeting yesterday approved a fund of Tk 40 crore, which constitutes 10 percent of Bangladesh's mandatory contribution to the consortium for project expenditure to launch the initial works.

The fund is to be disbursed by April 4. All consortium members are required to pay 10 percent of their own expenses by that time.

It will cost Bangladesh Tk 657 crore to implement the project and the government will arrange the fund. Dhaka has sought a $60 million credit from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for the purpose, sources said.

The government conceived a project to have a private submarine cable link with Singapore via Chittagong in the late 1990s with its own fund. The project was originally designed for launch in September 2000, but foreseeable corruption, bureaucratic bottleneck and wrong planning, among other reasons, stalled the project.

The project was also envisaged at a cost of Tk 921 crore, nearly Tk 300 crore more than what Bangladesh has to pay once it ties up with the consortium.

"The idea of implementing the project through a consortium will be cost-effective," said a telecoms ministry official. The consortium will take care of the maintenance at a low cost and Bangladesh will have to make no additional spending to land its cable in the member countries.

BTTB believes government earnings from telecommunications sector will shoot up as it can raise the number of telephone circuits with the consortium members.

The tasks under the project includes construction of cable landing station, a 22,000-kilometre trunk route and 1,200-1,400-km branch route of submarine cable, installation of optical fibre link between Chittagong and Cox's Bazar along the highway, upgrading of the existing Chittagong-Dhaka optical fibre link, installation of optical link between Chittagong and Cox's Bazar over electrical grid line and other installations.

Shubho · #2 March 18, 2004, 08:28 AM

about time we connect to the rest of the world.

**Nasif** · #3 March 18, 2004, 09:20 AM

This was offered to BD government way early in the 90s without cost (full foreign investment). Government refused the proposal citing that BD doesn't need the line! India accepted the deal during that time. Look where we are now.

[Edited on 18-3-2004 by nasif]

Hasib · #4 March 19, 2004, 08:37 AM

WHHHAAAATTT!!!! IT IS STUPID NOT TO ACCEPT FREE STUFF!!!

Orpheus · #5 March 19, 2004, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hasib
WHHHAAAATTT!!!! IT IS STUPID NOT TO ACCEPT FREE STUFF!!!

hahahah

Hell yeah.... Mad stupid ..

[Edited on 19-3-2004 by Zunaid : words]

**Nasif** · #6 March 21, 2005, 10:55 PM

Corruption
Sub-sea cable link plan rejected
Staff Correspondent

The Cabinet Purchase Committee yesterday rejected a proposal to award a contract to install an optical fibre link between Cox's Bazar and Chittagong that will hook Bangladesh to the global information superhighway on the grounds of corruption and price manipulation.

An unhappy purchase committee at a meeting also asked the telecoms ministry to re-tender the project.

The committee also asked authorities to punish officials who advocated the contract that could be sealed for Tk 17 crore less.

Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) last year wanted to award the contract to German company Siemens, the highest bidder in the project outlining a cost of Tk 47 crore. Canadian bidder Nortel offered the lowest bid at Tk 30 crore.

This means although an international consortium will finish the installation of the $0.5 billion South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe- 4 (SEA-ME-WE-4) submarine line by October -- delivering the connection at Cox's Bazar point -- Bangladesh will have to wait for six more months to reap the benefits.

"The committee was apparently angry at the ministry for wasting valuable time," said an official at Cabinet Division, seeking anonymity. The Cabinet Division on several occasions noted gross irregularities in the deal and sought the ministry's clarification on the way the deal was structured.

The committee yesterday observed that although the project's technical sub-committee announced the lowest bidder Nortel as 'responsive', the tender evaluation and re-evaluation committee pushed the highest bidder Siemens as 'responsive'. This was done despite the fact that one of the members on the evaluation committee had repeatedly expressed his reservations about the contract.

"The committee also observed that the BTTB violated the Public Procurement Regulation (PPR) in many areas. This is why the cabinet wants the BTTB to set clear-cut evaluation criteria during the re-tendering," the official said.

"The cabinet also wants the officials responsible for manipulation of the bidding to be punished."

The submarine cable project itself has already been delayed by more than four years. In March last year, after sitting on the project for four years, Bangladesh signed an agreement with a consortium of 16 international telecoms operators.

The submarine system will span around 20,000 kilometres across the eastern and western worlds to set an ultra-fast terabit per second connectivity. Bangladesh will get 10-gigabyte bandwidth, enough to match its next 10 years Internet and telephony demands. Presently, it needs about 150- megabyte bandwidth.

But to avail this infrastructure inland, the BTTB needed to install the fibre-optic cable network.

The state telecoms operator received a good price proposal in the bids floated early last year but it mysteriously took eight months to evaluate them.

http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/03/22/d5032201044.htm

*AsifTheManRahman* · #7 March 21, 2005, 11:08 PM

yeah...i remember that...they said we don't need it...we could have travelled miles by now if the govt had taken it back then.

Faceoff · #8 March 21, 2005, 11:34 PM

That was an horrible decision by our government.

Anywayz i hope this will be the beginning of a new era in BD IT sector which will in turn change the way of life.

Arnab · #9 March 22, 2005, 06:41 AM

If this means reliable broadband internet of T1 proportions, I might be thinking about going back to Bangladesh.

Speed beats everything.

akabir77 · #10 March 22, 2005, 08:45 AM

yeah baby i might too. And it was nazmul huda's fat head that made the decision... that fat B is still an Minister of the current gov... stupid...
At that time i had only one wish.. Kick in his a*s..

I still have that..

Spitfire_x86 · #11 March 22, 2005, 08:47 AM

I'll be happy if everyone gets 128 kbps down/up speeds at cheap rate.

I don't think we're going to get 1.5 Mbps and higher download speeds.

**Mahmood** · #12 March 22, 2005, 09:29 AM

Free was not good for them. If there is no money transaction, what do you get to steal???

This time, since we are paying for it, its accpeted, as there comes the money train.

imtiaz82 · #13 March 22, 2005, 10:17 AM

It wasn't free, I checked up on the news. The project would have been aided by foreign loan, which would have to be returned in future.

But I do agree that it was a big blunder by the Bangladesh government, we would have been miles ahead by now...

Quote:

Originally posted by Orpheus

Quote:

Originally posted by Hasib
WHHHAAAATTT!!!! IT IS STUPID NOT TO ACCEPT FREE STUFF!!!

hahahah

Hell yeah.... Mad stupid ..

[Edited on 19-3-2004 by Zunaid : words]

Edited on, March 22, 2005, 3:17 PM GMT, by nayeem007.

Akib · #14 March 22, 2005, 10:46 AM

That was a very horriblle decision.... It was free.....I wonder where BD will have been if htey accepted....

Its good they have it now. Make internet a little easier.

*reverse_swing* · #15 March 22, 2005, 10:59 AM

It was absolutely free at that time.

Edited on, March 22, 2005, 4:12 PM GMT, by chinaman.
Reason: I repeatedly requested to quote only the relevant parts instead of multiple level of posts. Next time, I'll have to delete the entire post.

couger · #16 March 22, 2005, 08:10 PM

Should've happened a long time ago. I guess politicians couldn't agree on a proper cut of the action.

**Mahmood** · #17 April 2, 2005, 03:11 PM

Its in Bengali.

The ship, carrying the instruments, roobed by pirates

Spitfire_x86 · #18 April 2, 2005, 04:10 PM

no april fool please........

Arnab · #19 April 2, 2005, 04:22 PM

I think it's true!!

If it is, WTF?

ialbd · #20 April 2, 2005, 04:40 PM

Eita to kisuina (only 30 lakhs takar equipment) lets pray that the whole Submarine Cable doesnt get stolen :P
________
Legend

**Nasif** · #21 April 2, 2005, 05:53 PM

Its no april fool. What a crazy world we live in!

Akib · #22 April 2, 2005, 06:11 PM

What is no april fool.. I cant read Bangla that well so i couldnt read the Rajpurto's link...

Please fill me in.

Ovi Khan · #23 April 2, 2005, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by aka
What is no april fool.. I cant read Bangla that well so i couldnt read the Rajpurto's link...

Please fill me in.

The link says that the Ship carrying the Submarine cable was robbed by pirates.

**Mahmood** · #24 April 2, 2005, 06:43 PM

It is true, no joke. I am ashamed and saddened by this event.

Arnab · #25 April 2, 2005, 06:48 PM

Ashamed? I don't think even "ashamed" expresses my real feeling. I feel disgusted. Ponero bochor deri kore ashlo, sheitao abar dakati. Gordobher dol.