The country's second submarine cable (SEA-ME-WE-5) has been out of service due to a fiber cable ‘break’ in the Indonesian sea area.
As a result, for the last 4 days, people including the internet service providers of the country are experiencing slow internet. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC (BSCPLC) said that the repair work of the submarine cable can be completed by the last week of May. BSCPLC General Manager (Operation and Maintenance) Saidur Rahman revealed the news on Tuesday.
He said that the SEA- ME- WE-5 cable was cut in the sea area of Indonesia at midnight last Friday. Their administrative work there takes a little more time. All in all, they said, the work can be done by the third or fourth week of next month.
Saidur Rahman stated that not all available options have been fully implemented yet. The country's inaugural submarine cable, SEA-ME-WE-4, possesses the capability to handle the full bandwidth. However, the associated company would need
to incur additional costs for its activation, a step that has not yet been taken.
Nonetheless, progress is underway with other available options.
It has been revealed that the country currently enjoys 1600 Gbps bandwidth through the SEA-ME-WE-5 cable. Unfortunately, the second submarine cable encountered a disruption approximately 440 km west of Singapore on Friday, leading to its complete shutdown. This issue has not only impacted Bangladesh but has also affected several other nations. Consequently, efforts are underway to establish an alternative system utilizing the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable. Notably, Bangladesh's initial submarine cable, SEA-ME-WE-4, has a landing station in Cox's Bazar, while the second submarine cable, SEA-ME-WE-5, enters through Kuakata.
In response to the decommissioning of SEA-ME-WE-5, a considerable portion of the bandwidth is being transferred to the SEA-ME-WE-4 cable to ensure continued connectivity.
