However, Bangladesh will have to wait for the global hook-up until completion of the work to link Cox' Bazar with Chittagong through a fibre optic cable network.

State-owned telecoms operator Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), one of the operators of the 16-nation SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine consortium, is now doing evaluation to select a vendor to complete the linking work before the September deadline.

The work includes installation of SDH 1670SM equipment and 32 ports of STM-1 optical, 16 ports of STM 1 electrical and 2 ports of HClink E and 1678MCC equipment (20 ports of STM-64 Optical, 8 ports of STM 16 Optical and 6 ports of STM 4 Optical), according to a release of Alcatel Bangladesh.

Alcatel ISD-Bangladesh has finished the installation of the optical fibre cables and ground works from the beach manhole to the landing station for the same project as a subcontractor of US company Tyco.

The companies in March started laying the cable from Bangladesh's landing station with the backbone of the submarine cable in the Indian Ocean.

Alcatel has set up the equipment at the landing station, while Fujitsu set up transmission equipment at the branch line. Tyco laid the branch line cable after it sealed a sub-contract deal with Alcatel.

Bangladesh signed the 16-party consortium contract in Dubai on March 27 last year for the mega project on the transcontinental submarine cable, which will be around 20,000 kilometre long, including the main trunk line and branches, and cost about $500 million to install.

The BTTB, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Thailand, Algeria, Tunisia and France along with Indian private carriers Bharti and VSNL are members of the consortium.