Bangladesh will be able to export extra internet bandwidth after the installation of its third submarine cable as Bhutan and Saudi Arabia have already shown their interest in procuring bandwidth from the country, say top planning ministry officials.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved a Tk 693-crore project yesterday to install the third submarine cable to meet the rapidly growing internet bandwidth demand and ensure uninterrupted broadband internet services.

The officials also said the new submarine cable would boost internet speed and help introduction of 5G services in the country.

Four projects worth Tk 2,115.20 crore got the Ecnec's approval at its weekly meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Of the four, all but the third submarine cable project are revised schemes.

Talking about the third submarine cable project, Planning Commission Member Shamsul Alam said the demand for internet bandwidth is increasing by 60 to 70 percent a year in the country.

A major reason for taking up another submarine cable project is that the operational life of the country's first submarine cable will end soon, he added.

"Bhutan have already officially contacted us to import internet bandwidth. Besides, Saudi Arabia has also expressed its eagerness to procure internet bandwidth from Bangladesh," Shamsul said.

Another Planning Commission Member Mamun-Al-Rashid said Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) under the Ministry of Post, Telecommunications and ICT will implement the project by June 2024.

Under the project, Bangladesh will be connected to the undersea cable SEA-ME-WE 6 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe), an optical fibre submarine communications cable system, officials said.

Bangladesh got connected to its first undersea cable, SEA-ME-WE 4, in 2006 and to the second one, SEA-ME-WE 5, in 2017.

The country now has a bandwidth capacity of 2,600 Gbps from two submarine cables. The third undersea cable will add another 7,200 Gbps, said BSCCL sources.

Yesterday, the Ecnec meeting gave the go-ahead to a proposal for extending the tenure of the project titled "Modernisation of Telecommunication Network for Digital Connectivity" by two years.

The three-year project was supposed to be completed by June this year. Following the extension of the project, its cost will go up by Tk 742 crore to Tk 3,315 crore.

At the meeting, the prime minister instructed the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) to expand its services to all remote areas, including Haor, Beel and Char.

The Ecnec also approved the second revision of the Municipal Governance and Services Project and a first revision of a project to re-excavate different rivers in Narsingdi.