A nationwide internet service disruption has unfolded following the disruption of the country’s secondary submarine cable, SMW-5. The outage, stemming from a damaged cable in Singapore, has led to widespread interruptions in internet connectivity, impacting users across the nation.
Authorities have confirmed the disruption, attributing it to the damaged submarine cable in Singapore. Reports of sluggish internet speeds have flooded in from internet service providers, with customers expressing dissatisfaction over the situation.
Mirza Kamal Ahmed, the Managing Director of Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC (BSCPLC), the state-owned bandwidth provider, stated, “The outage has completely halted the 1,600gb per second bandwidth supplied via SMW-5. Efforts are underway to establish alternatives using SMW-4, the primary submarine cable. Similar disruptions have been reported in neighboring countries due to fiber cable issues in Singapore.” Ahmed estimated that it would take at least 2 to 3 days to restore the connection.
Currently, the country demands approximately 5,000 units of bandwidth, with government agencies supplying over 6,000 units through submarine cables. Private companies fulfill the remaining demand by leveraging international terrestrial cables (ITCs).
