10 GP high-ups sued for VoIP involvement

(1) Mrs Rahman makes a local phone call to an international telecom network using a calling card she has purchased. (2) The call is then transferred to a satellite and sent to Bangladesh where it is received by VSATS (3) Small satellite dishes run by illegal VoIP operators. (4) The call is then transferred either to the fixed line or mobile network. This transfer is illegal and is done either by disguising the origin of the call or allegedly in collusion with staff at a legal operator. (5) Finally, the call is transferred to Faruk, her son, in Dhaka.

The telecoms watchdog has filed a case against 10 former and in service high officials including two former CEOs at the country's top mobile phone operator Grameenphone, accusing their involvement in illegal international call termination or VoIP.
Grameenphone, AccessTel, a local internet service provider, and Malaysia-based international call carrier DiGi Telecommunications are also on the accused list.
Bangladesh Tele-communication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) filed the case at Gulshan police station on January 16.
According to the FIR, the accused former Grameenphone officials are Erik Aas and Ola Ree, chief executive officers, Thor Randhaug, technical director, Yogesh Sanjeev Malik, chief technical officer, and Mehboob Chowdhury, director, sales and marketing.
The sitting accused Grameen officials are Khalid Hasan, director (regulatory and corporate affairs), Md Shafiqul Islam, chief technical officer, Kafil HS Muyeed, director (new business), Md Arif Al Islam, director finance, and Espen Wiig Warendroph, head of revenue assurance.
The two former CEOs left the company in December 2004 and January 2007 respectively.
In the FIR, the telecoms regulatory body said these three companies and individuals were involved in providing international call termination facility or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
“As the case is under investigation, we'll not comment on this. We're fully cooperating with the investigators in this regard,” a GP spokesperson told The Daily Star yesterday over phone.
The January 16 case is a follow-up of an 8-day long RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) raid starting from December 6, 2007 on the GP head office at Gulshan. The raid found huge equipment of illegal VoIP.
During the raid the RAB officials claimed that they had evidences that GP provided VoIP equipment to AccessTel to run illegal call termination business. The law enforcers found four circuits of E1 technology that connected the GP line with the AccessTel's.
The DiGi Telecommunications has been accused as it has a bilateral deal with the GP to terminate the latter's international call. Norway- based Telenor, the major stakeholder of Grameenphone, is also a shareholder of Digi Telecommunication.
BTRC sources said GP terminated international calls through DiGi. The GP's earnings from international calls are deposited with Webstein Bank, Singapore. But a considerable amount of money might be siphoned off from the bank instead of its dispatch to Bangladesh, apprehends BTRC.
“On examining some phone email documents and phone tapping of GP high officials, we can clearly say that the high-ups of the company were involved in the malpractice,” said a BTRC high official.
He said the matter is now under investigation and everything will be decided in the court.
The law enforcers tapped GP's calls and found that AccessTel was being used in terminating calls through E1 technology. E1 is an all-digital communications line that allows the transmission of voice, data, video, and graphics at very high speeds over standard communication lines.
The law enforcers also seized some internal emails and records that proved GP high officials' involvement in illegal VoIP.
In February 2007, BTRC filed another case against the Grameenphone accusing it of having involvement in VoIP. BTRC fined Grameenphone Tk168crore for its involvement in illegal VoIP.
The BTRC also fined CityCell Tk150 crore, AKTEL Tk 145 crore, and Banglalink Tk 125 crore for illegal VoIP trade.
VoIP is a technology that allows someone to make voice calls using a broadband internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line.
Some VoIP services may only allow calling other people using the same service, but others may allow calling anyone who has a telephone number - including local, long distance, mobile and international ones.
Bangladesh's Grameen Telecom holds GP's 38percent shares and Norway's Telenor the remaining 62 percent. The company with an over 16million subscription base is preparing to offload its shares in the capital market by the third quarter of the current calendar year.