Illegal VoIP business
Telecom ministry scores a big zero
When Tarana took office in July 2015, the country received 112.99m minutes calls thru VoIP a day on average. But there was no progress after her 90 days priority programme
Staff Reporter
State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim has failed to implement her promise to stop the illegal Voice over internet Protocol (VoIP) business in the country.
On the other hand, according to BTRC sources, the state minister herself helped to keep the illegal VoIP business running through state-owned mobile operator Teletalk.
Stopping of illegal VoIP was on the tops the list of the seven priorities of the posts and telecommunications division. Though the government took a stern stance to control illegal VoIP business, the state minister could not rein it in any way.
As per BTRC, when Tarana Halim took office in July 2015, on average the country received 112.99 million minutes calls through VoIP per day. But there was no progress after her 90 days priority programme which ended on Oct 2015. Moreover, during that period the illegal call rate increased to 40 million minutes perday. BTRC Chairman Shajahan Mahmood said: Government loses revenue when calls through legal channels decreases. The reason behind the decrease of such call is the increase of grey call i.e. illegal call. We are trying to control it.
As per BTRC directives, if any SIM is used for illegal VoIP, the concerned mobile phone operator is identified to stop it within four hours. The BTRC chairman said they are not getting necessary cooperation from Teletalk in this regard.
Replying to a query, he said, We fine as per rule. Teletalk, GP and Robi were all fined. Among them Teletalk did not pay the fined amount. However, no action was taken by the ministry in this regard. BTRC sources said a total of 1256 SIMs were used from January to April 7 this year and these SIMs were used for illegal VoIP. Of the SIMs, some SIMs were open for over 84 days.
For such activities, BTRC fined Teletalk Tk 50.24 lakh in May. But BTRC were not paid the money for the intervention of Tarana Halim. According to BTRC directive, for each SIM used for illegal VoIP the fine is USD 50 ( USD 1 equals to BDT 80). Teletallk was fined for 1256 SIMs which amounts to Tk 50.24 lakh.
BTRC sources said though initiatives were taken to realise the outstanding amount owed to the state but it has not been possible due to the intervention of the state minister who said she would see the matter. As a result, the state is being deprived of Tk 140 core revenue per month. One of the senior officials of BTRC said: When Teletalk is not paying the fine, it is creating a kind of discrimination among mobile operators. As a result the role of BTRC has been questioned and undermined.
The official also said that GP and Robi have both paid their respective fines, but Teletalk did not. Thus the private operators have raised questions about discrimination. BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood said: The duration of shutting down of the SIMs used for illegal VoIP has been decreased to two hours from four hours. Because the technology is so easy that it does not need more than two minutes to shut down an illegal VoIP connection.
So, there is no reason for Teletalk not to be able to shut off immediately after notification, BTRC officials said. BTRC detected involvement of 448,607 Teletalk SIMs in illegal VoIP during the last 9 months.
Two international organisations 3VI and SIGOS monitor the international calls on behalf of BTRC. In a report of the two organisations, 98 per cent of the illegal VoIP calls came through Teletalk SIMS during August 10-23. According to the report January to September, SIGOS detected 373,566 Teletalk SIMs were involved in illegal VoIP. Also, 3VI found involvement of another 75,041 Teletalk SIMs used in illegal VoIP during August to September.
