BSNL yet to clear payment for bandwidth import
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), a state-run mobile network provider of India, has deferred payments on internet bandwidth imported from Bangladesh despite scrapping its deal four months ago.
"BSNL is seeking some more time to clear the dues and can hopefully do so by September," said Mashiur Rahman, managing director of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL).
Due to a serious lack of revenue, BSNL can't afford to import internet bandwidth from Bangladesh and suspended its cope with BSCCL on February 7, ending a four-year partnership.
BSCCL is owed Tk 6.39 crore by the Indian telecommunications carrier, who hasn't made any payments since September 2018. The Indian company cited the Covid-19 pandemic as the real reason for the deferral, Rahman told The Daily Star yesterday.
"While it holds true that the coronavirus pandemic has unavoidably pushed everyone into crisis, we will take strong measures if indeed they [BSNL] fail to keep their new promise."
For almost a year, BSNL has struggled to create payments to its staff and vendors, a lot of whom have sought Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to recuperate the dues, according to Indian media reports.
BSCCL apparently does not have any qualms against by using a similar approach to gather what is owed.
"We decided to wait until September but if we do not get the money at that time, we must use diplomatic methods," Rahman said.
In June 2015, BSNL signed an agreement to import 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) of bandwidth for the Northeastern state of Tripura through the Akhaura-Agartala point.
BSCCL started out exporting bandwidth to BSNL on February 8, 2016 and continued until February 7 this season.
Last November, the country's lone submarine cable company was informed that BSNL would no more continue steadily to import bandwidth because of a dearth of earnings despite huge demand for internet services in the Northeastern Indian states, such as for example Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam.
Most Indian mobile network providers in remote areas source bandwidth from the country's heartland. However, due to the vast distances covered in hills that the bandwidth must travel, services levels have a tendency to be unsatisfactory.
This prompted companies like BSNL to import bandwidth from Bangladesh to cater to the areas nearer to the border.
BSCCL earned Tk 9.6 crore in the first year of the agreement with prices set at $10 per Mbps. Later, the price was revised twice to take it down to $6.
When the offer was primarily inked, BSNL had hoped to improve its internet bandwidth imports up to 100 Gbps within a year, according to BSCCL officials. However, the Indian company could never consume even 10 Gbps bandwidth regardless of the huge demand in Tripura. Its consumption rate never exceeded 8 Gbps.
"India's private sector has outplayed BSNL," Rahman said.
Under the arrangement, BSCCL received Tk 5.46 crore annually but this value appears smaller due to the fact local companies contribute around Tk 50 crore in earnings to the submarine cable company.
"From the business perspective, the deal didn't involve a huge amount of money but it was a matter of pride for the united states," he added.
BSCCL is definitely holding talks with private companies from the neighbouring country. However, the discussions are yet to translate into formal agreements due to bottlenecks.
Currently, BSCCL supplies about 1,100 Gbps of bandwidth to the neighborhood market, while another 500 Gbps is imported from India through Benapole.
The state-owned firm has two existing undersea internet connections - SEA-ME-WE 4 and SEA-ME-WE 5 - with a combined capacity of 2,600 Gbps and plans to set up a third cable to meet up the country's growing demand.
It raked in Tk 58.58 crore in net profits for fiscal 2018-19.
BSNL has reported losses since 2010 and is estimated to lose an additional 14,202 crore rupees in FY19, according to a report of the business enterprise Standard of India.
The general public sector firm's provisional loss was 4,859 crore rupees in 2015-16, 4,793 crore rupees in 2016-17 and 7,993 crore rupees in 2017-18.
