The Bangladesh Private Cable System (BPCS) consortium is set to begin construction on Bangladesh’s first privately-owned subsea cable. Comprising Summit Communications, CdNet Communications, and Metacore Subcom, BPCS received the necessary licenses from the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) in September 2022 and formed the consortium to undertake this pivotal project.
Pioneer Consulting, the project management and consulting firm overseeing the project, announced on Tuesday that construction has officially commenced. The 1,300-km cable will link Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh with the Campana-owned UMO cable, extending from Thanylin, Myanmar to Tuas, Singapore. BPCS will control three fiber pairs on the cable, each capable of delivering at least 15 Tbps of bandwidth.
Over the past two years, Pioneer Consulting has provided comprehensive support to the BPCS consortium, assisting with route assessment, due diligence, commissioning of the UMO cable system, formation of the supply contract, and management of the survey for the branch route.
Dave Marie, Pioneer Consulting’s director of client solutions, highlighted the firm’s continued role in project management, engineering, and quality assurance for the branch cable’s connectivity to Singapore. “We’re proud to contribute to this transformative project, which promises to redefine connectivity in Bangladesh,” Marie stated, noting that the necessary contracts are in place and the marine survey was completed ahead of the monsoon season.
The new cable aims to address the urgent need for additional bandwidth in Bangladesh, which currently relies on two state-owned subsea cables, SEA-ME-WE 4 and SEA-ME-WE 5, and has a stake in the upcoming SEA-ME-WE 6, set to be operational in 2025. The importance of increased and redundant connectivity was underscored by a significant disruption in April when a break in the SEA-ME-WE 5 cable severely impacted Bangladesh’s international subsea capacity.
K.M. Tariquzzaman, CTO of Summit Communications and project lead for the BPCS consortium, emphasized the strategic importance of the new cable. “This infrastructure is crucial for improving internet speed, reliability, and affordability across Bangladesh, ensuring world-class internet capacity and accessibility,” he said.
The BPCS cable is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2026. This announcement follows a grant awarded by the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to CdNet several months ago for a feasibility study on another new subsea cable project, the Bangladesh International Submarine Cable (Bagha-1).
