Kuakata, Bangladesh

Kuakata, Bangladesh: Submarine Cable Landing Point

Kuakata is a coastal town in the Patuakhali district of southern Bangladesh, situated on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. Its position along this coastline makes it a landing point for international submarine cable infrastructure connecting Bangladesh to the broader global network. One submarine cable lands at Kuakata, integrating this southern Bangladeshi town into a long-haul intercontinental corridor stretching from Southeast Asia through the Indian Ocean to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

The cable landing at Kuakata is SeaMeWe-5, one of the major submarine cable systems serving the South and Southeast Asia to Western Europe corridor. Through this single system, Kuakata connects Bangladesh to a chain of territories spanning multiple continents, linking the Bay of Bengal to the Mediterranean and beyond.

Cables Landing at Kuakata

SeaMeWe-5 is a submarine cable system approximately 20,000 kilometres in length that reached ready-for-service status in 2016. The system connects Bangladesh at Kuakata with landing points in Djibouti, Egypt, France, Indonesia, Italy, and Malaysia. This route spans Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean, forming a continuous cable path between the Asia-Pacific region and Western Europe. The Kuakata landing represents Bangladesh's connection point on this extensive intercontinental system.

Regional Context

Bangladesh has two submarine cable landing points in total, with the other being Cox's Bazar, which hosts two submarine cables. Kuakata, hosting one cable, accounts for a portion of the country's total of three submarine cable landings. Together, these two landing points form the entirety of Bangladesh's submarine cable infrastructure.

Network Role

Kuakata functions as a single-cable terminus on the SeaMeWe-5 system, placing Bangladesh at an intermediate point on a long-haul intercontinental route that runs between Southeast Asia and Western Europe. The cable's reach across Djibouti, Egypt, France, Indonesia, Italy, and Malaysia means that the Kuakata landing provides Bangladesh with connectivity across a corridor that touches four continents. The system's 20,000-kilometre length underscores the geographic range enabled by this single landing point.

Within Bangladesh's submarine cable geography, Kuakata sits alongside Cox's Bazar as one of only two locations where the country has established a physical landing for undersea cable systems. The presence of a dedicated landing point here extends the geographic distribution of Bangladesh's international cable access beyond a single location, contributing to the country's overall position within the regional submarine cable graph of the Bay of Bengal and the broader Indian Ocean region.