INT’L INCOMING CALL
BTRC to cut rate to aid politically licensed IGWs
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has taken an initiative to lower the international incoming call charges to facilitate politically licensed
international gateway operators, said BTRC officials.
The commission has initiated a move to lower the international incoming calls ranging from 1.5 cents to 2 cents from existing 3 cents, they said.
They said the move was taken to facilitate the politically licensed IGWs who were failing to make any successful business case and thus bringing huge amount of calls in lower than BTRC prescribed rate.
‘There is a chance that lowering the rate might increasing official call volume as sharing less revenue might encourage the operators. But, if the volume remains the same as present the government will lose money,’ said a BTRC official.
The country records around 90 million minutes of international incoming calls daily out of which around 50 million minutes are disclosed to regulators, he said.
‘The operators often hide the actual number and bring calls in lower rate than we prescribed. Now, if the sharing rate goes down operators might declare more number of calls but there is no guarantee of that,’ he said.
‘One thing is guaranteed that the operators will have less revenue share with the government,’ the official said.
He said the process was at the initial stage and after the commission’s approval it would be sent to posts and telecommunications ministry for final nod.
In 2008, the BTRC awarded four IGW, three ICX and two IIG licences. The regulator had proposed at best 10 more licences, but the government in last year awarded 25 IGW, 23 ICX and 34 IIG licences more, and now the total number of gateway licences stands at 91.
At present the government receives around Tk 1,000 crore from the IGW operators as yearly revenue. The new 25 IGW licences could hardly make an increase in the revenue
They also said the BTRC was yet to get more than Tk 1,000 crore worth license renewal fees from the IGW operators.
The recent IGW licensees got political back-up and do not care to comply with the relevant laws properly, the officials said.
For example, Roots Communication Ltd, First Communications Limited, Vision Tel Limited, Ratul Telecom Limited and Digicon Telecommunication Limited have connections either with the ruling party or its allies.
The BTRC officials said the companies were given several show-cause notices for violating rules and not sharing the revenues but nothing happened because of their highly placed political connections.
In a recent move, the BTRC directed the IGW to form a clearing house in a bid to curb illegal international call termination and unhealthy competition among the service providers.
The BTRC directive came following a recent trend of decreasing international call volume and offering of low rates in international calls other than the prescribed rates, it said.
The BTRC directive also said that irrespective of any promotion, package and timing (off peak) the call charges could not be less than approved tariff.
Hundreds of individuals, small cartels and companies are involved in illegal VoIP business across the country which causes a huge loss to the government revenue, said the BTRC officials.
-With New Age input
