IGW operators help double revenue from int’l calls

Government revenue from legal international call charges more than doubled to US$36 million per month from previous $15 million with the private operators engaged in handling of international calls, official sources said Saturday. “International call termination through legal channel also soared significantly by almost three times from 360 million call-minutes per month to 900 million call-minutes per month during the last six months,” a top official of the country’s telecom regulator said.
Telecom regulator — Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory commission (BTRC) – fetches US cents 2.07 per call minute from international calls channelled through legal operators.

But a large number of illegally channelled international calls, known as illegal voice over internet protocol (VoIP), is still operative, which is eating up revenues worth $24 million a month, operators said.

The country had a lone international call terminator – the then state-owned Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) – until the outset of private sector operators in August 2008.

But the BTTB, currently known as Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL), could hardly handle international calls of around 10 million call minutes per day until 2008 despite having monopoly with all infrastructural support in hand.

“The same company –BTCL– is, however, handling international calls almost double the previous quantity to around 18 million call-minutes per day now. Thanks to the countrywide massive drive against the illegal VoIP,” the BTRC official said.

Three privately owned international gateway (IGW) operators, licensed under the International Long Distance Telecommunication Service (ILDTS) Policy-2007, are currently handling international calls of around 12 million call-minutes per day collectively.

“But this sector has prospects to grow by 20-25 per cent annually and contribute more revenues if some bottlenecks particularly halting of illegal VoIP can be ensured,” Telecommunication Infrastructure Operators of Bangladesh (TIOB) President Mir Nasir Hossain told the FE Saturday.

If the illegal VoIP could not be stopped, the private sector investments worth Tk 4.0 billion, poured in the last several months, would go down the drain, Mr Hossain, also the chief partner of privately owned international call operator Mir Telecom, said. “The BTRC should boost its monitoring, both technical and physical, to root out the illegal VoIP business,” Chairman of Novotel Arshad Jamal said.

The regulator can install deep packet inspection (DPI) machine at a cheap cost to trace out the illegal VoIP operators, he added.

“Government can save a large amount of revenue through checking illegal VoIPs,” Director of Bangla Trac Communications Fazlul Huq said.

Mir Telecom, Novotel and Bangla Trac Communications are the country’s three private international gateway (IGW) operators apart from the state-run BTCL.

The three operators provide 51.75 per cent of US cents 4.0 against every call minute to the government exchequer.

The IGW operators along with interconnection exchange (ICX) operators are currently working to handle international calls made to and from the country.

The caretaker government approved the ILDTS policy for opening up the operatorship of international calls to private sector and check illegal VoIP operation across the country.

As per the policy the IGW operators are facilitating voice and data transfer across the globe having been connected with the submarine cable and ICX.

ICX are bridging interconnection with the IGW and the internet telephony operators.

Source: Financial Express