Internet slow due to maintenance work

Internet users of some parts of Bangladesh have been facing slow services due to a maintenance work in the primary submarine cable under the Bay of Bengal.

Disruption in the data services is taking place since Friday and it will continue up to May 24 due to the ongoing maintenance work in the submarine cable of India's Chennai portion, Mashiur Rahman, managing director of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL), told The Daily Star today.

"Some internet disruption" may take place though the state-owned company already made some arrangements to bypass bandwidth through an alternative route, Rahman said.

"We have routed our bandwidth from Cox's Bazar-Chennai-Singapore route from Cox's Bazar-Bangkok-Singapore route and that's why users are facing a slight disruption," he said.

The BSCCL also routed some of its bandwidth through country's second submarine cable and its bandwidth uses increased to 180 Gigabits per second (Gbps) from 140 Gbps after the incident, he added.

Currently, the state-run company is supplying about 300 Gbps bandwidth and the country's total consumption is about 550 Gbps bandwidth. The state-run BSCCL supplies 250Gbps and an additional 200 Gbps is imported from India.