Dhaka, Nov 15 (bdnews24.com)—Internet users in Bangladesh will face a pause in their service on Friday for three hours from 2am for repairs of the undersea cable, according to Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company which operates the country’s segment of the network.
BSCCL Managing Director Monwar Hossain told bdnews24.com on Thursday the router in the cable of the area between Malaysia and Singapore will be changed.
However, the international connection will be in operation through satellite and VSAT during the suspension.
Bangladesh connects with the rest of the world with a lone submarine cable SEA-ME-WE-4 that stretches from Singapore to Mumbai in India via Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India’s Chennai and Sri Lanka.
The repairs will continue until Nov 20 and the internet users will experience very slow connections that will cause for internet-based phone calls and email.
The official said the state-owned BTCL has taken alternative arrangements for backup internet connection.
Currently, Bangladesh depends on a single submarine cable and often faces issues. India, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia have alternative arrangements that spare them from such hassles.
The submarine cable system that Bangladesh is currently connected to is a high capacity optical fibre cable system linking 16 companies of 14 countries.
Called the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe- 4 cable network, the undersea communications cable is managed by an international consortium.
Bangladesh plans to secure an alternative connection in 2014 via a new network named SEA-ME-WE 5 which will use 100 Gbps (gigabit per second) technology – ten times faster than the current system.
Source: Bd News 24
