[Bangladesh] Over half of overseas calls go by illegal VoIP
TIOB : By admin | April 13, 2009
Illegal VoIP operations are on the rise, grabbing more than half of the overseas calls business in Bangladesh, due to lack of government control, said industry leaders on Sunday. Telecom infrastructure providers say development of the Tk 3,500-crore international calls sector will remain a far cry until the government takes effective measures, especially against unregulated VSAT use. “The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has been asked to reinforce its measures against illegal VoIP, but it’s been hindered in the aftermath of the BDR incident,” said Mir Nasir Hossain, president of TIOB (Telecommunication Infrastructure Operators of Bangladesh).
He said the BTRC’s newly appointed chairman Zia Ahmed had assured them, however, of soon resuming the drive against the illegal operators.
Nasir said measures must also be put in place for limiting the use of VSAT—small and very portable satellite dishes for easy connection to the Internet—to put an end to illegal VoIP calls, suggesting VSAT use be limited only to corporate houses.
He was addressing a ‘Meet the Press’ in the capital organised by TIOB, a body of some nine BTRC licensees who provide telecom infrastructure, including International Gateways (IGW), Inter Connect Exchanges (ICX), International Internet Gateways (IIG), National Telecommunication Transmission Networks (NTTN) and submarine cable.
He said the recently introduced International Gateway licences have helped raise the legal volume of international calls up to 2.3 crore minutes from the previous 1.5 crore minutes.
Three private IGW operators of Bangladesh have added over Tk 150 crore to public coffers since August last year. They also paid Tk 60 crore in licence fees.
But, Nasir said, the government was still losing huge amounts of revenue as illegal VoIP businesses transfer profits abroad through illegal hundi transactions. He also pointed out that criminals choose to use VoIP as these calls go unchecked.
Arshad Jamal, of Novo Tel Ltd, said the three private IGWs and the state-run BTCL’s IGW are capable of handling the entire voice traffic of Bangladesh.
But the illegal VoIP market is still controlling more than 50 percent of the voice traffic, “throwing a tough challenge to the licensed operators”, he said.
The TIOB president said the ongoing global recession was also reducing the volume of international calls.
“In the last few years, international calls saw a 15 to 20 percent rise, but that volume has dropped again recently due to the economic downturn,” said Nasir.
Bangla Trac Communications Ltd managing director Tarique E Haque, GETCO Telecommunications Ltd’s Hafizr Rahman, Mango Teleservices Ltd’s Mir Masud Kabir and M&H Telecom Ltd’s Didarul Islam also gave presentations on ICX and IIG operations.
Source: blogs.com.bd
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