The government owned mobile operator Teletalk has been mainly blamed for running illegal call business through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and as per the news item in April this year Bangladesh Tele-Regulatory Commission (BTRC) had detected 1256 Teletalk SIMs it was operating in making illegal calls. Some were found activated for four hours while some others over 84 days at the longest defying regulator’s order to deactivate them. The fact is that when illegal operators close some SIMs they open new SIMs and for powerful quarters, it is not difficult to get new SIMs. Teletalk is blamed for 98 percent of the illegal VoIP as dishonest business houses are running call centers in the capital and throughout the country.
It is almost known to all that powerful people are making ineffective any resolve of the concerned government agencies to stop the illegal VoIP business. It has rather thrived in recent past. Report said BTRC had fined Teletalk over Tk 50 lakhs in May this year but the State Minister’s intervention looking after the Telecommunication Ministry allowed it to escape without payment. It had rather eroded the power of the regulatory body while the illegal business continues unchecked.
It is no secret that powerful quarters are using Teletalk to mint illegal fortune and as such they influence almost all appointments and posting in the organization in a way that would protect their interest. So when other mobile operators have mostly deactivated illegal SIMs and making huge profit expanding their business, Teletalk is sinking while even failing to pay due fees to the government.
There is a growing frustration over the failure of the present State Minister Advocate Tarana Halim who had vowed when she took over last year to end illegal VoIP as one of her top priorities. But now it appears she has to make compromise. Earlier report said the same mobile operator had failed to pay the 3-G installation fees and some Ministers had even reportedly lobbied with the Finance Ministry last year to make the payment for the operator claiming it was suffering from financial crunch. We don’t know what happened later on.
In fact it is not difficult to understand why Teletalk is sick but the question is whether dishonest business houses should be allowed to run illegal VoIP business to deprive the government of its revenue. In our view a total reorganization is needed in the organization to protect it from vested interest quarters.
