Pioneer Consulting working on Bangladesh's first private submarine cable

In Bangladesh, US-headquartered telecom consultancy Pioneer Consulting is playing an important part in the development of the country’s first privately owned submarine cable system.

In September 2022, Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) awarded submarine cable licenses to three companies, providing them the mandate to install Bangladesh’s first privately owned submarine cable system. The three companies – Summit Communications, CdNet Communications, and Metacore Subcom – jointly go to market as the Bangladesh Private Cable System (BPCS) consortium.

Their subsea cable will consist of a 1,300 km branch cable beginning in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and connecting to the Campana-owned UMO trunk cable, which runs from Myanmar to Singapore. The BPCS consortium will own rights to three of the cable’s fiber pairs, each supplying at least 15 Tbit/s of bandwidth.

The new cable will greatly expand Bangladesh’s internet capacity while contributing much-needed service diversity and redundancy. This endeavor is also expected to drive down service prices for Bangladeshis.

Bangladesh currently only has two submarine cables that connect the nation to wider markets, both of which are managed by state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cables. As a result, Bangladeshis experience relatively higher prices for internet access and abrupt outages. Just this April, one of the two cables broke, leading to a significant reduction in capacity and reports of high latency in some areas.

“Bangladesh deserves world-class internet capacity and accessibility; we believe our new cable will significantly enhance the country’s ability to meet its internet demand in the coming decade. This new infrastructure will greatly improve internet speed, reliability, and affordability across Bangladesh,” said K.M. Tariquzzaman, CTO of Summit Communications and Project Lead for the BPCS consortium.

The consultant

Pioneer Consulting has supported the BPCS consortium over the past two years via route assessment, due diligence, commissioning of the UMO cable system, supply contract formation, and purchasers’ representative management for the survey of the branch route.

Additionally, BPCS recently contracted Pioneer Consulting for project management, engineering, and quality assurance support of the branch cable for connectivity to Singapore, which is expected to go into service in the first quarter of 2026.

Pioneer Consulting’s tasks include audits and factory visits, factory and in-station tests, schedule and budget management, route engineering and system installation, system assembly testing and commissioning management, and general project management and supervision.

“We’re proud to be part of this groundbreaking project, poised to change the connectivity landscape of Bangladesh,” said Dave Marie, Director at Pioneer Consulting. “We’re off to a strong start, with all contracts in place and the marine survey completed well before the onset of Monsoon season. We’re looking forward to a productive partnership with Summit Communications and the entire consortium.”

Headquartered in New Jersey, Pioneer Consulting specializes in telecom services, in particular in the area of subsea cables. The consulting firm works on projects around the world, including a current engagement in the Caribbean.