Lack of strong policy and surveillance as well as earning of huge amount of illegal money in short time are responsible for illegal call termination, said telecom experts at a discussion in Dhaka on Saturday. In addition, unhappy politics and dishonest employees of the government are also contributing to increasing illegal use of call termination, commonly known as VoIP (voice over internet protocol).
The telecom regulator, however, said it was going to introduce modern technology to ruin the illegal call termination. But, the telecom experts say the effort of stopping illegal use of VoIP is not fully possible.
Telecom Reporters’ Network, Bangladesh organised the roundtable discussion titled ‘Illegal call termination, current situation and way out’ at a hotel in the capital.
Speaking at the discussion as chief guest, Sunil Kanti Bose, Chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, said his commission was going to introduce new technology within next three weeks to bring the Gateways (IGW, ICX and IIG) under surveillance.
‘In addition, cellular phone operators would also be brought under surveillance through introducing new technology,’ he added.
The BTRC chairman informed that the mobile phone operators would get access to the national ID database of Election Commission soon to verify customer’s identity during SIM registration. ‘Surveillance will also be easier after introduction of the verification system.’
Bose also informed that the commission was mulling to set the revenue of international call termination at 1.5 cent from the existing 3 cent.
Expressing his frustration about the low quality service of cellular phone operators, the BTRC chairman said the service of the operators was not up to the mark at present. ‘Gradually the services of the operators including Grameenphone have deteriorated.’
IT expert and chief strategic officer of Fiber@home Sumon Ahmed Sabir said: ‘In terms of technological aspect, stopping illegal use of VoIP is not possible fully because alternative system would come once exiting system is barred.’
Dishonesty in politics and corrupt government officials are also responsible for the illegal call termination, he added.
LIRNEasia senior policy fellow Abu Saeed Khan said: ‘Cores of taka come whenever mobile call goes beyond one country border, which cannot be stopped fully.’
He suggested that BTRC update the law and policy.
Zakiul Islam, senior director of Banglalink, said the cellular operators were incurring loss of Tk 0.30 in every illegal call termination. So, the operators want legal call to run business without loss, he added.
Zakiul informed his company so far blocked 11 lakh SIMs, which were being used for illegal call termination.
Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate affairs officer of Grameenphone, said his company was blocking suspected SIMs through self monitoring in every three hours.
Mahmudur Rahman, executive vice-president of Robi, said the BTRC had to upgrade law and policy in accordance with the change of technology.
Experts from different companies of the sectors took part in the roundtable.
-With New Age input
