A cartel of the international gateway operators is planning to gain control over pricing of international incoming call termination industry by forming a two-tier clearing exchange.
BTRC officials said a consortium of some IGW operators recently proposed BTRC to from an International Clearing House in two tiers where one tier will bring calls and process it themselves while other tier will only bring calls and forward it to first tier.
The consortium in the proposal cited a Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission directive issued on February 2013, which asked the IGW operators to form an ICH with a single entry system through state-run Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd.
The BTRC directive said that all the 29 IGW operators will be forming the ICH which will help the BTRC to monitor the international call termination better as it will only be routed via BTCL.
According to the proposal of the consortium, the superior tier, consist of six IGWs, will have direct link to interconnection exchange operators while the inferior tier will only handover the calls to the first tier.
The proposal also said the IGW operators will have a guaranteed quota of incoming international traffic as per their existing market share which will help to curb illegal traffic.
BTRC officials said some of the giant IGW operators agreed to this proposal while others kept mum.
‘The big ones see big profit in the formation of ICH in two tiers. On the other hand, the small ones are quiet as the big ones assured them to provide a handsome guaranteed revenue,’ a senior BTRC official told New Age.
He said such policy is against the BTRC law as the commission is responsible for ensuring fair competition in the telecom sector.
Another BTRC official said a fair ICH could have helped the industry but a discriminatory proposal was made for an IGW consortium.
‘The BTRC has already formed a committee to analyse the proposal which will eventually go in the favour of the consortium,’ said another BTRC high up.
He said if the IGW alliance raises the price altogether then non-resident Bangladeshis will have to pay more money to talk to home.
BTRC officials said Beximco vice-chairman Salman F Rahman joined hand with the IGW operators and he is behind the proposal.
Asked about the issue Salman, who is Awami League president and prime minister Sheikh Hasian’s advisor for private sector, admitted that he helped some IGW operators with their problem.
‘I am not officially involved with the IGW operators forum but I helped them organising themselves. I also helped them with some of their industry issues,’ Salman told New Age over phone on Monday from Dubai.
BTRC officials said the IGW operators were also lobbying with the government heavily for tariff cut on international call termination to 1.5 US cents from existing 3 cents.
The finance ministry has twice rejected the proposal for rate cut as it would cause the government to lose Tk 1,073 crore in revenue.
Information minister Hasnaul Haque Inu, however, on Monday proposed to the cabinet for lowering IGW tariff to 1.5 cents, saying it would help to curb illegal transmission.
BTRC awarded four IGW licenses in a public auction on 2008 and the Awami League-led government in 2012 awarded 25 more licenses – mostly to people linked to the ruling party.
Pakistan in 2012, following a government directive formed an ICH for their IGW operators which drew a huge controversy.
The difference of proposed Bangladeshi ICH model from the Pakistani one is the introduction of tier system in Bangladesh.
The Competition Commission of Pakistan later suspended the ICH with the help of Supreme Court.
-With New Age input
