The New Nation - Internet Edition

Chittagong Correspondent

Reasons behind the repeated cutting of Chittagong-Cox's Bazaar optical fiber cable, only fastest data exchange backbone in the country, are still undetected causing frequent dislocation of cyber connectivity apart from huge revenue loss to the government.

According to the latest report of the BTTB, at least seven of the 32 such incidents had been speculated as 'sabotage' what needed even deeper investigations and the remedial moves. Unfortunately, no security agency has taken up the matter with due significance.

Officials of the BTTB preferring anonymity alleged that the people involved in the project had manipulated nearly a half of the allocation and finished the project without security protections.

They blamed the project supervisors for twisting the preconditions what had been endorsed in the tender. It is widely believed that the secrets will come out if the Project Director is rightly interrogated.

The contractors allegedly did not use concrete-turf top and bottom of the cable for its safeguard. Dislocation of the cyber connectivity due to the cable cutting lasted for eight hours to 72 hours.

As the country lacks alternative backbone, telecommunication engineers think any act of sabotage may put the country's information exchange system in total disarray.

Internet service providers and cellular phone operators urged the BTTB and authority concerned to immediately investigate the incidents of snapping of optical fiber cable for the sake of their smoother operations.

Information Technology experts think that the BTTB, sole public agency for taking care of the submarine cable, needs to be more efficient and must plan remedial t tackle the accidents.

"I strongly believe that technological advancement is necessary for any country to prosper in the current global scenario and to that end, we urge the relevant authorities to ensure that our internet and telephone connectivity are properly protected and maintained at all times," an IT expert commented.

The BTTB entered the SEA-ME-WE-4 project that linked 14 countries Singapore to France via Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Italy with 16 landing points.

The SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable landed at the world's longest beach in Cox's Bazaar. The BTTB built a 165-kilometers optical fiber link from Cox's Bazaar cable landing station to Chittagong.