Razia Sultana :
VOIP mean Voice over Internet Protocol. It is a technical term in digital communication systems. Voice can be digitalized. The digitalize voice can be transmitted in packets over the network. Voice transmission comes in different manner. In the past, telecommunication through fixed circuit switched network has dominated. In recent years, we see data communication networks, especially voice over IP. Voice over IP is the transmission of voice traffic in packets using the internet as the transmission medium. IP is used rather than the traditional circuit transmission.
VoIP is a recent application of internet technology-Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) : Transmission of voice over internet.
There are many more definitions of VoIP, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communication and multimedia sessions over internet protocol (IP) networks, such as the internet.
VoIP is a technology that allows telephone calls to be made over computer networks like the Internet. VoIP converst analog voice signals into digital data packets and supports real-time, two way transmission of conversations using internet protocol (IP).
Accordingly to the International Long Distance Telecommunication service (ILDTS) policy 2010 “Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)” is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP network. The Voice data flows over a general purpose packet-switched network. VoIP refers to away to carry phone calls over an IP data network, weather, on the internet or, own internal network. A Primary attraction of VoIP is its ability to help reduce expresses because telephony calls travel over the data network rather then the phone company’s network.
Why we using VOIP- The Internal Protocol (IP) is used to deliver packets carrying digitized voice. However, I.P was not designed for real time traffic such as voice and video communication. IP is a connectionless protocol meaning a virtual connection is not established through a network prior to transmission. IP makes no guarantees concerning reliability, flow control, error detection or error correction potential errors include out of sequence packets or even loss of packets. Voice Transmission requires guaranteed connection and a reasonable delay.
Nevertheless, IP succeeds partly due to the high cost associated with the traditional circuit switched TDM Network. VoIP uses packet switched network. It makes the network transparent to the upper layers that are involved in voice Transmission though an IP based Network. The existing use of IP network also allows the integration of voice and data integration. To Leverage the connectionless nature of IP, vendors have developed higher layer protocols to address the granted connection and transmission issue.
VoIP within international Regime – As the popularity of VoIP grows, governments are becoming more interested in regulating VoIP in a manner similar to PSTN services. Throughout the developing world, countries where regulation is weak or captured by the dominant operator, restrictions on the use of VoIP are imposed; In panama where VoIP is taxed, In Guyana-where VOIP is prohibited. In Ethipia-where the government is nationalizing telecommunication service, it is a criminal offence to offer service using VoIP. The country has installed firewalls to prevent international calls being made using VoIP. The measures were taken after the popularity of VoIP reduced the income generated by the state owned telecommunication company. In Pakistan the scenario is some as our country. Issues regulated by Pakistan Telecommunication Commission (PTC), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) defines Grey telephony as : the use of illegal gateway exchanges to by pass legal PTCL gateways and terminate/ originate international traffic, including through VoIP gateways, GSM gateways, Wll-phones, mobile SIMs or other related equipment. This traffic may then be distributed onwards using WLL and mobile numbers. It is claimed that Grey telephony costs losses of over Rs. 3 billion annually. In India-where its retail commercial sales is allowed but only for long distance service, Regulations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) require that voice traffic over the enterprise date Network and the public switched Telephone Network (PSTN) must be strictly separated and no mixing of calls between the two Networks can occur for the purpose of toll by pass.
VoIP within Bangladesh contest- In Bangladesh, it is legal to use VoIP, but it is illegal to have VoIP gateways inside Bangladesh. This effectively means that people who have PCs can use them to make a VOIP call to any number, but if the remote side is a normal phone, the gateway that converts the VoIP call to a POTs call is not permitted by law to be inside Bangladesh, Foreign based VOIP server service are illegal to issue in Bangladesh. In the interest of the Access service providers and International long Distance operators the Internet Telephony was permitted to the ISP with restrictions, Internet Telephony is considered to be different service in its scope, nature and kind from real time voice as offered by other Access service providers and Long Distances Carriers. Hence the following type of Internet Telephony are permitted in Bangladesh:-
P.C to Pc with in or outside Bangladesh; PC/ a device /adaptor conforming to standard of any international agencies like-ITU or IETF etc. in Bangladesh to PSTN/ PLMN abroad, Any device/ Adaptor conforming to standards of International agencies like ITU, IETF etc. connected to ISP node with static IP address to similar device/ adaptor; within or out side Bangladesh; Except whatever is described in condition above, no other form of Internet Telephone is permitted, In Bangladesh no separate numbering scheme is provided to the internet telephony presently the 11 digit numbering allocation based on E-164 is permitted to the fixed telephony, GSM, CDMA wireless service, The internet service license is not permitted to have PSTN/ PLMN connectivity. Voice communication to and from a telephone connected to PSTN/ PLMN and following E-164 numbering is prohibited in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Government issued VoIP licenses to 3 companies: Bangla Trac, Novotel and Mir Telecom in 2008. But a sim number of calls are routed by these licensed companies, rest are done illegally because of the cost, Bangladesh Government decided to issue more 3.500 VoIP license.
However, all those activities relating to VoIP are regulated through following domestic legal instruments (i) Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006, (ii) ICT policy in Bangladesh, (iii) The Bangladesh Telecommunication control Act, 2001, (iv) Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulations & Policies, (v) The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (licensing procedure) Regulations, 2004 (Vi) The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (interconnection) Regulations, 2004 (Vii) International Long distance Telecommunication service (ILDTS) policy-2010.
Step to check illegal VoIP business- Hence in this context, the Govt. should take immediate step to stop illegal voice termination for the betterment of the country :
The existing Telecommunication laws should be amended, if necessary,
Issuance of VoIP license should be restricted to a eligible applicants,
Irregularities in the Telecommunication sector should be brought down
Officials of the concerned telecommunication Ministry should be made more accountable and transparent in discharging their responsibilities,
Finally, we can say social awareness should be created to discourage illegal VoIP practices, and to ensure healthy and motivating VoIP business & also to ensure national security and protect national interest.
Effect of illegal use of VoIP business in Bangladesh-The effect of call termination is alarming. International calls Via BTTB Gateway (ITX) decreasing day by day, and resulting huge loss of foreign currency. Beside this, it is severally affecting the performance of telephone switching equipment. As the holding time for call termination is too high usage is not considered in Telephone number is not a standered tool for call delivery. Such high usage is not considered is telephone exchange dimensioning. So PSTN subscribers are facing congestion problem in subscriber stage. Moreover due to pilling up of telephone numbers by the terminators the real subscribers are being deprived of getting telephone lines. In the case Mobile the congestion scenarios is also acute. Due to use of Mobile numbers for call termination the mobile subscribers of the specific calls find difficulty in getting radio access channel for generating or receiving calls.
Persons involved with this illegal Act-In earlier, the peoples holds cell-phone and fixed lines they had to count fines for their illegal VoIP business. Present situation is quite different, in most cases those illegal business men’s are depriving the country of a hefty sum:-
a) A number of unscrupulous officials and engineers of the Bangladesh Telecommunications company Ltd. (BTCL),
b) Some influential quarters of the incumbent government.
c) Some foreign carries- Hence there is a clear loophole, lack of duties of the BTCL. When a foreign Casmir is making a false guarantee from local bank and the government giving them permission on that forged letter, very surprisingly the BTCL don’t bother to examine such papers. And the result is a large number of amounts of money are unpaid fees to the BTCL on account of international incoming calls.
In Bangladesh there are various Telecommunication laws, regulations, policies which are deals with VoIP, including issuing VoIP license. But still there exists lots of Limitation and therefore the illegal practice of VoIP is raising. Lock of social awareness, percentage of education is not up to the mark. Employees, Officials, including regulatory body of the telecommunication are corrupted. Hence making of laws is not enough implementation of laws must. So, this is the high time to decide on this illegal practice, otherwise, the government will be deprived from huge amount of foreign currency every year.
Lastly we can say that, In modern world we are experiencing various crimes which have never been heard, with the growing development of technology, these are happening. For example-cyber crime- (Hacking, e-mail, spoofing, computer vandalism, cyber terrorism, cyber pornography, cyber defamation, E-mail frauds (Span), money laundering, data diddling, intellectual property crimes etc.), Alike in telecommunication illegal use of VoIP is such a crime. This discussion has sought to map the raise of VoIP through exponding broad band networks, as well as some of the most silent regulatory issues that are emerging from VoIP’s rapid spread through out the global market place. The growth of VoIP services is changing the Telecommunication landscape, bringing new group of criminal into competition with incumbents and rewriting the sector’s economics. While government and regulators move to embrace the growing reality of VoIP, operators are adapting to the altered competitive landscape and the emergence of new business models. As this portion has sought to reveal, regulators are responding in flexible and measured ways to address and resolve these issues, pointing the way toward bringing all of the track record bodies well for further integration of networks, services and applications in the era of convergence.
