According to Spark Bangla Submarine Cables Ltd (SBSCL), the $180 million cable has been given a ready for service (RSF) date of 26 March 2023 – in honour of the country’s 50th Independence Day anniversary.
Once built, the 4500Km, 192Tbps system will support the accelerating bandwidth and data needs of the country’s residents, positioning it for future digital opportunities.
RBT-2 is an eight fibre pair system, connecting five additional countries along its route serving such regions as SAARC, BIMSTEC and ASEAN. It also features an express link Singapore to Bangladesh, with additional branch units as well as a fiber portal for wet monitoring. RBT-2 aims to position itself as a ‘digital ambassador’ between the various the regions acting as a digital conduit for the exchange of technology and culture.
In addition, RBT-2 will has a branch unit faced towards the Middle East up to Djibouti; it is also well placed to act as a point of interconnection between SEA-ME-WE 6 and the Bay of Bengal Gateway-2 (BBG2) cables.
Telecom and ICT Minister, Mustafa Jabbar announced plans for the third system in January. At the time, the country was said to be seeking a consortium to join that wanted to build a new cable from Singapore.
SBSCL is also working on its Bay of Bengal Gateway-2 (BBG2) cable project. The proposed system is made up of three smaller cables, Express Way 1 (EW1), (Express Way 2) EW2 and (Express Way 3) EW3. The system is being touted as offering 72Tbps and 8 fibre pairs. It also has a tentative RFS date of 2020.
