Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC (BSCCL) has achieved a new milestone in international bandwidth (real-time internet traffic) transmission, reaching 4 terabits per second.
On Saturday, the Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiul Alam shared this information in a Facebook post.
He stated that after commercially launching satellite-based internet services (Starlink) with 200 Gbps bandwidth in July, the state-owned telecom company, listed on the stock exchange, achieved this new milestone on August 1.
Earlier, on April 28, BSCCL had reached the 3-terabit milestone. In just three months, its bandwidth supply increased by 1 terabit.
The press secretary mentioned that in the eight months prior to April, bandwidth usage had increased by 1.10 terabits. Before this, during the Awami League’s tenure, over 65% of the company’s capacity remained unused. Under the current government, bandwidth supply has increased by more than 2.2 terabits, with growth exceeding 105% in just one year.
Shafiul Alam attributed this achievement to policy support and directives from the Posts and Telecommunications Division, the dedicated efforts of the company’s management, and two rounds of price reductions. As BSCCL’s share in the country’s bandwidth usage has gradually increased, the company’s revenue has also risen significantly.
Recently, the BTRC amended its licensing guidelines, mandating all IIG operators to use at least 50% submarine bandwidth for their total bandwidth consumption. This move has reduced unilateral dependence on India for internet supply.
To further encourage submarine bandwidth usage, BSCCL has incentivised IIG operators who now use more than 50% submarine bandwidth.
He also noted that BSCCL has introduced additional discounts on increased bandwidth usage and announced separate internet packages for data centres, cloud services, and hyperscalers, beyond regular discounted bulk packages.
The press secretary added that the government has signed agreements for the revised routes of SEA-ME-WE 4, SEA-ME-WE 5, and SEA-ME-WE 6, with the proposal recently approved by ECNEC.
He expressed optimism that this expansion would add another 17 terabits of new capacity to BSCCL’s real-time internet transmission capabilities.