Nokia to supply SLTE gear for private Bangladesh-Singapore cable
- Details
- Category: Optical & Fixed Networks
- 7185 views
The Bangladesh Private Cable System (BPCS) consortium has reportedly tapped Nokia to supply submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) for its planned subsea cable project linking Bangladesh and Singapore.
First announced in September 2024, the 1,300-km BPCS cable will connect Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh to the Campana-owned UMO subsea cable that runs from Thanylin, Myanmar to Tuas, Singapore. The BPCS consortium will own rights to three of the cable’s fibre pairs, each supplying at least 15 Tbps of bandwidth.
According to a report from the Business Standard on Monday, officials at the agreement signing ceremony said using Nokia's SLTE technology at both cable landing stations would enable lower power consumption, reduce space requirements in data centres and improve network management, all of which would also help cut opex.
The consortium has already invested around BDT6 billion (US$49 million) in the project and plans to spend a further BDT12 billion to BDT13 billion to launch its three fibre pairs in the cable in the second half of 2026, the report said.
BPCS says the new private cable will bring badly needed new bandwidth to Bangladesh, which currently has two subsea cable connections via SEA-ME-WE 4 and SEA-ME-WE 5, both of which are co-owned by state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cables PLC (BSCPLC). BSCPLC also owns a stake in the SEA-ME-WE 6 cable, which is scheduled to be ready for service in the first quarter of 2026.
Bangladesh’s need for more redundant international connectivity was emphasised in April 2024 when a break in the SEA-ME-WE 5 submarine cable knocked out two-thirds of the country’s international subsea capacity.
The BPCS consortium comprises Summit Communications, CdNet Communications and Metacore Subcom, each of whom received licences from the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) in September 2022.
