Bharti Airtel's India-Bangladesh terrestrial OFC is now operational

Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel Wednesday said that its high capacity terrestrial optical fiber link between India and Bangladesh has been activated.

The link, which extends from Bongaon in West Bengal to the Petrapole-Benapole border, will enhance voice and data connectivity between the two countries as well as transit traffic between Bangladesh and the rest of the world.

The link will also provide robust network infrastructure and high bandwidth to support the anticipated data thrust in Bangladesh with the upcoming 3G services, the company said in a statement here.

"This commencement of terrestrial optical fiber connection between India and Bangladesh will be a key catalyst for Bangladesh's future growth in telecommunication. This will enable Bangladesh to connect to the rest of the world with improved voice quality and high speed data," Chris Tobit, chief executive officer, Airtel Bangladesh Limited said.

The cable will offer seamless connectivity to enterprise and carrier customers for transiting traffic between Bangladesh and key business hubs like Singapore, London, Chennai, Mumbai & Los Angeles via India. The cable is further interconnected with the fiber backbone constructed from the Benapole border to Dhaka by the ITC (International Terrestrial Cable) licensees in the region.

This alternate international gateway to Bangladesh will offer dual path connectivity ensuring high uptime and service levels, it said.