Bangladesh will be connected to a high-speed overseas telecom link shortly amid hopes that it will foster the growth of information technology in the impoverished country. The cable will directly connect Bangladesh to 11 countries in Western Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East and provide much needed extra bandwidth.

The connection with the submarine cable system will immediately connect Bangladesh's telecom backbone with the high-speed global telecom system known as the information superhighway. The link will give the nation better voice and data transmission bandwidth enabling the country to offer outsourcing services such as call centers, data processing and medical transcriptions for the first time.

Bangladesh turned down an earlier opportunity in the late 1980s and analysts say the decision has hampered the growth of telecom and outsourcing services. The country has only a small number of call centers.

DQC NEWS BUREAU

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