The government has decided to link the country' with a second undersea cable to overcome the disturbance resulted from frequent submarine cable cuts and reduce dependence on a lone cable.

Telecom Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju disclosed the government's plan yesterday in the parliament.

Answering questions raised by lawmakers regarding the telecom industry’, the minister said, "The government has decided to link Bangladesh with a second submarine cable consortium as soon as possible to reduce die reliance on a lone undersea cable."

The minister however did

not clearly mention whether the private sector or the government itself will implement the project.

The telecom minister also said the government is going

to introduce 3G technology in the mobile operators soon.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is working to link the country with another undersea cable through the pri-\ ate sector.

Installed by a consortium of 16 countries including Bangladesh, the submarine cable was launched in 2006. Bangladesh paid $35.1 million for its part of the cost, since the installation of the line, there have been more than two-dozen rounds of disruption — either problems with the on-land fibre optic line or main undersea backbone.

As Bangladesh's internet-based activities rely on its lone SEA-ME-WE4 submarine cable, a single disturbance in the cable brings inevitable

affects to internet access.

The information technology (IT) sector mainly seeks the link with an additional submarine cable, as the sector suffers due to the disruptions.

The SMW-4 cable has a capacity to handle a 120 gigabyte (Gb) bandwidth, and of this, Bangladesh is currently subscribing 14 Gb.

Bangladesh Submarines Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), formerly BTTB, has already earned revenues of over Tk 200 crore by renting this bandwidth.

The minister said the government has no plan to introduce flat rates for the telecom industry. This is because, according to him, call rates are significantly low due to stiff competition among operators.

Talking about the broadband prospects, he said the government plans to introduce high-speed wireless broadband through WiMax and 3G technologies within the next five years.

At present, Bangladesh has no high-speed broadband internet service. The high-speed broadband service is likely to be intro-duced by this month through WiMax. Iwo companies were awarded licence to provide WiMax services in Bangladesh.

Presently, only one million people are enjoying internet facilities from internet service providers and telecom service operators.