UNB, Dhaka :
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will soon form a technical audit team aiming to detect revenue dodging by mobile phone operators and illegal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) business, according to officials at the telecom regulator.
They said, the technical audit team will work to find out the real amount of call termination and monitor weather all the telecom operators and VoIP businessmen are skirting around the rules.
This audit team, which will be formed in line with the recommendation made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, will recruit a big technical audit firm to keep watch on the illegal call termination and the revenue tricks, said BTRC secretary M Sarwar Alam.
On December 17, 2014, the standing committee recommended the ministry BTRC to float a re-tender for establish a Centralized Monitoring System (CMS) to resist illegal VoIP businessmen and hiring an audit firm to audit calls.
If the CMS can be established it will help monitor the call volume of license holders and identify the illegal VoIP businessmen to stop the illicit business.
According to sources at the ministry, the audit firm will keep watch whether telecom operators are giving right information about the incoming and outgoing international calls to the government.
Besides, the BTRC has taken some other initiatives, including special drives, to wipe out illegal VoIP business.
Legal incoming calls routed to the country through International Gateway (IGW) have almost doubled over the last six months following the special drives against the illegal VoIP business, the BTRC sources said.
But, the rate of illegal call termination – which means illegal routing of phone calls from one company to another – is still very high in the country, depriving the government of huge revenue, they observed.
Talking to UNB, BTRC Secretary M Sarwar Alam claimed the amount of legal incoming calls has increased to 10-11 crore minutes on average every day, which was only 5.46 crore in June, 2014 and 4.65 crore in 2013 following the special drive against illegal VoIP business.
The BTRC, in association with different law enforcement agencies, has so far conducted 35 raids against those involved in illegal VoIP business and seized huge illegal channel boxes, gateway, servers, unregistered SIM cards, computers and many other instruments from the illegal VoIP operators, he added.
The BTRC secretary also noted that they are looking forward to increasing the raids against illegal VoIP businessmen in the current year.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will soon form a technical audit team aiming to detect revenue dodging by mobile phone operators and illegal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) business, according to officials at the telecom regulator.
They said, the technical audit team will work to find out the real amount of call termination and monitor weather all the telecom operators and VoIP businessmen are skirting around the rules.
This audit team, which will be formed in line with the recommendation made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, will recruit a big technical audit firm to keep watch on the illegal call termination and the revenue tricks, said BTRC secretary M Sarwar Alam.
On December 17, 2014, the standing committee recommended the ministry BTRC to float a re-tender for establish a Centralized Monitoring System (CMS) to resist illegal VoIP businessmen and hiring an audit firm to audit calls.
If the CMS can be established it will help monitor the call volume of license holders and identify the illegal VoIP businessmen to stop the illicit business.
According to sources at the ministry, the audit firm will keep watch whether telecom operators are giving right information about the incoming and outgoing international calls to the government.
Besides, the BTRC has taken some other initiatives, including special drives, to wipe out illegal VoIP business.
Legal incoming calls routed to the country through International Gateway (IGW) have almost doubled over the last six months following the special drives against the illegal VoIP business, the BTRC sources said.
But, the rate of illegal call termination – which means illegal routing of phone calls from one company to another – is still very high in the country, depriving the government of huge revenue, they observed.
Talking to UNB, BTRC Secretary M Sarwar Alam claimed the amount of legal incoming calls has increased to 10-11 crore minutes on average every day, which was only 5.46 crore in June, 2014 and 4.65 crore in 2013 following the special drive against illegal VoIP business.
The BTRC, in association with different law enforcement agencies, has so far conducted 35 raids against those involved in illegal VoIP business and seized huge illegal channel boxes, gateway, servers, unregistered SIM cards, computers and many other instruments from the illegal VoIP operators, he added.
The BTRC secretary also noted that they are looking forward to increasing the raids against illegal VoIP businessmen in the current year.
