Agartala: India’s third International Internet Gateway (IIG) in Agartala through Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh was not being optimally exploited due to technical reasons, Tripura’s Information Technology Minister Tapan Chakraborty said on Tuesday.
“Due to technical deficiencies of the 10 gigabit bandwidth capacity IIG in Agartala through Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, only 6.1 gigabit bandwidth is being utilised,” Chakraborty told the state assembly.
He said: “For optimal utilisation of the Agartala IIG, a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) has to be set up here at a cost of Rs 300 crore. Through the Agartala IIG, the international internet traffic is being transmitted. However, the domestic internet traffic, which is 60 per cent of the total, is being routed through the old Guwahati-Kolkata-Chennai internet route.”
The Minister said the Tripura government has urged the Centre to improve the internet connectivity of the northeastern states by optimally utilising the Agartala IIG. “The GGSN machine must be set up here and transmit the domestic traffic along with the international traffic through the third IIG (in Agartala).”
Quoting Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) officials, Chakraborty said the government-owned telecom service provider is yet to synchronise its mobile data service with the Agartala IIG.
The Minister said the BSNL disinvestment plan was resulting in loss of customers in the country.
He said that of the total 27.56 lakh mobile phone customers in Tripura, only 433,540 subscribe to BSNL service and the remaining prefer private telecom operators.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina, along with Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, on March 23 last year inaugurated the 3rd IIG through videoconferencing from their respective offices in New Delhi, Dhaka and Agartala. The Agartala IIG is the third such internet gateway after Mumbai and Chennai. (IANS)
