SIM re-registration reins in illegal voice calls

Mobile operators in 2016-17 deactivated 15.57 lakh SIM cards allegedly being used for illicit businesses, such as illegal bypassing of incoming international voice traffic, according to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

Industry people credited biometric verification and re-registration process of SIMs for the channelling of more voice calls through legal routes and a 25.82 percent year-on-year decrease in the deactivation rate.

However, the number of joint drives of BTRC and police against the illegal international incoming call routing business declined last fiscal year.

In 2016-17, 19 joint raids were carried out, down from 33 a year ago, according to the BTRC's recently published annual report.

International incoming call termination rate is $1.5 cents per minute and 40 percent of it goes to the national exchequer. The illegal businesses dodge the legal route to profit from, at least, the revenue they deprive the government of.

A top official of the telecom regulator said the biometric verification process in the first half of 2016 hit the illegal voice call business hard and brought an end to a lot of traditional crimes previously carried out through mobile phones.

"The increase in the usage of different communication applications also helped improve the scenario," said the official.

Last fiscal year, 13.02 lakh SIMs were blocked under the mobile operators' regular self-regulation process.

BTRC deactivated 2.23 lakh connections using a SIM box detection system and seized 33,115 SIMs through drives in 2016-17, according to the report.

Under the system, two organisations in contract with BTRC make international calls to trace those enabling illegal bypasses.  Teletalk blocked 5.17 lakh SIMs, the highest among the operators, last fiscal year. The state-owned operator switched off 12.03 lakh connections in 2015-16.

The operator deactivated 24,590 SIM cards thanks to joint operations, 2.12 lakh connections through BTRC's detection system and 2.80 lakh connections on its own.

"We are trying to present Teletalk as a clean brand. That's why we have taken different initiatives," said Kazi Md Golam Quddus, managing director of the mobile phone operator.

Airtel, which recently merged with Robi, deactivated 3.70 lakh SIM cards, the second highest.

Its 4,616 SIM cards were deactivated through the joint operations, 3,130 through the detection system and 362,688 through the operator's self-regulation process.

Market leader Grameenphone's 3.31 lakh SIMs were deactivated and of them, 3.28 lakh connections were blocked under its self-regulation process.

Robi deactivated 3.13 lakh SIM cards in 2016-17, up from 2.51 lakh the previous year.

In the last two years, Banglalink established a cleaner image. Some 24,777 of its SIMs were found being used in running illegal activities in 2016-17, down from 86,981 a year ago.

Citycell's 27 SIM cards were deactivated last fiscal year, showed the BTRC report.

In the last few years, the telecom watchdog deactivated over 2.5 crore SIMs. A senior executive of a mobile operator said they paid a few hundred crore takas in taxes against all these SIMs.

He said connections being used in running illegal businesses hurt the operators' incomes. So the operators themselves have been deactivating SIMs in the last few years, he said.