Illegal VoIP 

Teletalk rules the roost

Despite various measures taken by the government to curb illegal call termination, including the recent biometric verification of subscribers identity module (SIM) cards, international calls are still entering the country illegally, mostly through SIMs of state-run mobile operator Teletalk.
Sources in the Bangladesh Tele­communication Regulatory Commi­ssion (BTRC) said over the last few days, the BTRC has detected—with the help of its state-of-the-art SIM box detection tool— more than 95 per cent of calls that had entered the country illegally. Most of these calls were terminated using Teletalk SIMs.
After the deadline of biometric SIM verification ended on May 31, the BTRC, during the first four days of June, identified a total of 7,709 illegal call terminations through SIM boxes. Number of calls terminated using Teletalk SIMs were 1,681, 2,184, 1,828 and 1,920 while only two illegal calls through Grameenphone (GP), two by Robi, eleven by Banglalink, and none using Airtel and Citycell connections. PSTN operator RanksTel connections were used to terminate 42 calls on June 3 and 39 calls on June 4.
When The Independent contacted Teletalk Managing Director Gias Uddin Ahmed over the matter, he said, “Teletalk is not involved with any illegal activities like illegal call terminations. It is a conspiracy against the state run company as some private operators always seek to destroy Teletalk.”
When the Teletalk chief was pointed out that the reports were generated from BTRC using SIGOS (previously Meucci Solutions) technology that identified the illegal call through six mobile operators in details, he said, “Teletalk has always taken action whenever it has detected any illegal call terminations through VoIP and we are blocking 5 to 6 thousand SIMs everyday.”  
“We block the SIMs which are identified to have been used for illegal calls. The problem is that around 45 per cent of the SIMs are still unregistered. So, it is not possible for us to identify the owners of the numbers which are used for illegal call terminations,” he added. Industry experts said biometric
verification of SIMs has now made it easy to detect the identities of the call terminators. The government is losing billions of taka in revenue every year due to illegal call terminations, they said.
According to the BTRC, the number of legal call terminations through IGWs is 80 million per day while illegal calls number over 40  
millions. Recently, the BTRC fined Teletalk Tk 50 lakh for not adhering to the commission’s instructions over illegal call termination. At that time, the BTRC detected 1256 Teletalk SIMs used in illegal VOIPs. As per the rule, the state run telco was supposed to block the SIMs, but the operator took no steps in this regard.
Those calls were made through illegal voice-over-internet protocols (VoIPs), where SIM boxes were used to bypass legal channels like international gateways (IGWs). A SIM box is a device used as part of a VoIP gateway installation. It contains a number of SIM cards, which are linked to the gateway, but housed and stored separately from it. A SIM box can have SIM cards of different mobile operators installed, permitting it to operate with several GSM gateways located in different places.
SIM boxes generate significant interconnection revenue losses for mobile operators by bypassing official interconnections, making the operators lose millions of wholesale minutes. Devices known as SIM box detection tools have been installed by regulatory body BTRC to identify international calls that are terminated illegally through VoIP as local numbers.
In Bangladesh, the BTRC uses technology from SIGOS (known earlier as  Meucci solutions), one of the most advanced and state-of-the-art SIM box detection tools.
Experts said Teletalk—the sole state-run mobile operator—has the dubious reputation of terminating the highest number of illegal VoIP calls.
Earlier, in June 29, 2014, three operators—GP, Banglalink and Robi—wrote an official letter to BTRC after analysing call flows to their systems from different operators. Citing data on call terminations, their letter indicated Teletalk’s involvement in illegal termination of international calls.
The letter cited a BTRC report that 38,613 Teletalk SIMs were used for making suspicious calls between May 28 and June 27. In the same period, 6,080 SIMs of Airtel were used for such calls, followed by Robi’s 1,217, Banglalink’s 511 and GP’s 472.
“We would now request the BTRC to take necessary initiatives to implement the self-regulation process at Teletalk network to bar/disconnect the suspected SIMs in their network,” the letter added.
The BTRC took action and nearly 120,000 SIM cards of the state-run operator were blocked for illegal call terminations in June 2015.
According to BTRC data, the number of active subscribers in the country is 131.95 million, of which over 116 million have already completed biometric registration so far.
The number of SIMs which got re-registered till May 31 are GP 49.6 million, Banglalink 27.8 million , Robi 20.2 million, Airtel 7.4 million, Teletalk 2.3 million and Citycell 2.2 million. SIMs of the rest of 23.84 million active subscribers have been blocked alongside 76.159 million inactive SIMs.

Illegal VoIP 

Teletalk rules the roost

Despite various measures taken by the government to curb illegal call termination, including the recent biometric verification of subscribers identity module (SIM) cards, international calls are still entering the country illegally, mostly through SIMs of state-run mobile operator Teletalk. Sources in the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said over the last few days, the BTRC has detectedwith the help of its state-of-the-art SIM box detection tool more than 95 per cent of calls that had entered the country illegally. Most of these calls were terminated using Teletalk SIMs. After the deadline of biometric SIM verification ended on May 31, the BTRC, during the first four days of June, identified a total of 7,709 illegal call terminations through SIM boxes. Number of calls terminated using Teletalk SIMs were 1,681, 2,184, 1,828 and 1,920 while only two illegal calls through Grameenphone (GP), two by Robi, eleven by Banglalink, and none using Airtel and Citycell connections. PSTN operator RanksTel connections were used to terminate 42 calls on June 3 and 39 calls on June 4. When The Independent contacted Teletalk Managing Director Gias Uddin Ahmed over the matter, he said, Teletalk is not involved with any illegal activities like illegal call terminations. It is a conspiracy against the state run company as some private operators always seek to destroy Teletalk. When the Teletalk chief was pointed out that the reports were generated from BTRC using SIGOS (previously Meucci Solutions) technology that identified the illegal call through six mobile operators in details, he said, Teletalk has always taken action whenever it has detected any illegal call terminations through VoIP and we are blocking 5 to 6 thousand SIMs everyday. We block the SIMs which are identified to have been used for illegal calls. The problem is that around 45 per cent of the SIMs are still unregistered. So, it is not possible for us to identify the owners of the numbers which are used for illegal call terminations, he added. Industry experts said biometric verification of SIMs has now made it easy to detect the identities of the call terminators. The government is losing billions of taka in revenue every year due to illegal call terminations, they said. According to the BTRC, the number of legal call terminations through IGWs is 80 million per day while illegal calls number over 40 millions. Recently, the BTRC fined Teletalk Tk 50 lakh for not adhering to the commissions instructions over illegal call termination. At that time, the BTRC detected 1256 Teletalk SIMs used in illegal VOIPs. As per the rule, the state run telco was supposed to block the SIMs, but the operator took no steps in this regard. Those calls were made through illegal voice-over-internet protocols (VoIPs), where SIM boxes were used to bypass legal channels like international gateways (IGWs). A SIM box is a device used as part of a VoIP gateway installation. It contains a number of SIM cards, which are linked to the gateway, but housed and stored separately from it. A SIM box can have SIM cards of different mobile operators installed, permitting it to operate with several GSM gateways located in different places. SIM boxes generate significant interconnection revenue losses for mobile operators by bypassing official interconnections, making the operators lose millions of wholesale minutes. Devices known as SIM box detection tools have been installed by regulatory body BTRC to identify international calls that are terminated illegally through VoIP as local numbers. In Bangladesh, the BTRC uses technology from SIGOS (known earlier as Meucci solutions), one of the most advanced and state-of-the-art SIM box detection tools. Experts said Teletalkthe sole state-run mobile operatorhas the dubious reputation of terminating the highest number of illegal VoIP calls. Earlier, in June 29, 2014, three operatorsGP, Banglalink and Robiwrote an official letter to BTRC after analysing call flows to their systems from different operators. Citing data on call terminations, their letter indicated Teletalks involvement in illegal termination of international calls. The letter cited a BTRC report that 38,613 Teletalk SIMs were used for making suspicious calls between May 28 and June 27. In the same period, 6,080 SIMs of Airtel were used for such calls, followed by Robis 1,217, Banglalinks 511 and GPs 472. We would now request the BTRC to take necessary initiatives to implement the self-regulation process at Teletalk network to bar/disconnect the suspected SIMs in their network, the letter added. The BTRC took action and nearly 120,000 SIM cards of the state-run operator were blocked for illegal call terminations in June 2015. According to BTRC data, the number of active subscribers in the country is 131.95 million, of which over 116 million have already completed biometric registration so far. The number of SIMs which got re-registered till May 31 are GP 49.6 million, Banglalink 27.8 million , Robi 20.2 million, Airtel 7.4 million, Teletalk 2.3 million and Citycell 2.2 million. SIMs of the rest of 23.84 million active subscribers have been blocked alongside 76.159 million inactive SIMs.