International telecoms, internet and all voip connections will remain disconnected for about four hours from 1:00am on October 29 for power configuration of the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 submarine cable (SEA-ME-WE-4) link in Singapore.

Bangladesh is connected to the SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable which is 20,000 kilometres long beginning from Marseille of France to Singapore via the Middle East.

The people in Bangladesh, however, will be able to use the internet and make international phone calls through the four satellite earth stations of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited and privately-owned Very Small Aperture Terminals, or

VSATs, during the time, the Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd managing director, Monowar Hossain, said
Sources in telecommunications sector said all the stations in Segment 1 of the submarine cable from Singapore to Mumbai would remain down because of power configuration.

‘Although all Segment 1 stations will remain down for about three hours on October 29, the country will not remain blacked out as there will be some alternative arrangement for the time,’ Monowar said on Sunday.

‘It would not be a big problem as international call traffic remains think during the period of the day,’ he said.

International telecoms and internet connections will have an alternative arrangement for three days from October 29 as Bangladesh will remain disconnection from the SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable. Two repeaters at a place between Malaysia and Thailand will be replaced during the period.

‘Bangladesh will remain connected to an alternative submarine cable from Chennai to Singapore between October 29 and November 1. Two repeaters in Segment 1 of the SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable will be replaced during the four days,’ he said.

‘We will use I2I submarine cable of the Bharti Airtel for telephone traffic while we have hired additional bandwidth from Italy to ensure uninterrupted internet service during the period,’ he said.

Sources in private telecoms operators, however, said the country might face low international telecoms connectivity between October 24 and November 2. He said three companies — MAGMA, CEAOCMA and E-marine — which are responsible for the maintenance of the submarine cable will do the repairs.

The replacement work was scheduled to begin on October 17 but the date was shifted as India’s Tata took time to repair its own cable, sources inside the sector said.

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