Teletalk bringing VoIP calls!

It is the state-owned mobile operator Teletalk that is now bringing illegal VoIP calls into the country, in violation of the regulations. Over the past one month, the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) carried out five raids and cancelled about 120,000 Teletalk SIMs. But this seems to have made no difference to Teletalk.

The three private mobile operators of the country, Grameenphone, Banglalink and Robi, have collectively complained four times in writing to BTRC and the ministry for post and telecommunications. Based on these complaints, BTRC issued two show-cause letters to Teletalk. Teletalk has not replied.

VoIP is the illegal way to bring in international calls. By legal channels, a call from abroad first comes through the international gateway (IGW) operator and the IGW operator switch (IOS) to the ICX operator. From the ICX operator it goes through the mobile operator to the subscriber. The subscribers thus can receive international calls.

A call coming from abroad through legal channels costs 1.50 cents of Tk 1.20. The government gets 40% of this, ICX gets 17.%%, the mobile operators 22.5% and the remaining 20% goes to the IGW companies.

The foreign calls coming through VoIP show up as local calls and so the normal regulations of dividing up the money do not apply. The government and the other parties all lose out on revenue. Only the party that brings in the call makes a profit. According to BTRC, on average 11 crore (110 million) minutes of calls come in daily to Bangladesh.

In the last letter sent by Grameenphone, Banglalink and Robi to BTRC on 17 June, it was said that mobile operators receive 27 paisa for each international call and 18 paisa for each local call. Teletalk deprives them of earning their rightful 27 paisa by brining in international calls as local ones.

The letter contained a graph showing the abnormal rise in Teletalk's local calls. Compared to May, in June the Teletalk calls to Grameenphone went up by 45.77%. For Banglalink and Robi, it went up by 40% and 39.6% respectively. While the number of calls shot up, there was hardly any change in the number of Teletalk subscribers.

The average duration of a local call for other operators is 1.5 minutes, yet the average duration of a Teletalk local call is almost four minutes. Those calling from abroad normally talk longer than those within the country.

Syed Talat Kamal, head of external communications at Grameenphone, said, "According to regulations, we regularly block suspected illegal calls and submit the report to BTRC. BTRC similarly blocks such calls and gives us directives. This is a transparent process."

When contacted on Sunday, Teletalk managing director Gias Uddin Ahmed refused to comment.

BTRC chairman Sunil Kanti Bose told Prothom Alo, "Just because it is a government organisation, Teletalk isn't being given any leeway. BTRC has carried out several surprise inspections of the Teletalk office."