Illegal VoIP hurts call handlers

Mir Nasir Hossain, president of the Telecommunication Infrastructure Operators of Bangladesh, speaks at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday.Photo: STAR

The illegal VoIP technology poses a threat to international call handlers, as some big cracks remain in call termination channels, industry people said yesterday.
International call termination through voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is banned in line with the law in Bangladesh.
But VoIP operators handle a high volume of calls to cash in on the lucrative business and affordable nature of the technology.
Two major loopholes were identified at a press conference organised yesterday by international call and data handlers. They are an ineffective monitoring system in Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd's IIG and a presence of a good number of VSATs operating in the country.
"VSAT and absence of an effective monitoring system in BTCL's international internet gateway are used for illegal international call termination," said Mir Nasir Hossain, president of the Telecommunication Infrastructure Operators of Bangladesh (TOIB).
He said as per the International Long Distance Telecommunication Service (ILDTS) policy, the government is committed to limiting the use of VSAT (very small aperture terminal).
"But it did not happen as yet. Apart from corporate use, all other VSAT should be closed as soon as possible to restrict VoIP," the TOIB president said.
Bangladesh has become a lucrative market for illegal VoIP users as a large number of people live abroad and make 23 million minutes of calls per day.
The volume of calls through legal channels jumped from 15 million minutes a day a year ago after the setting-up of the three IGW, two ICX and one IIG exchanges in the country in the middle of last year.
The last caretaker government set up the exchanges through private sector entrepreneurs to keep the illegal VoIP business under check. The international gateway (IGW) and interconnection exchange (ICX) are responsible for handling voice, whereas the IIG is responsible for handling internet data traffic.
However, the novice international call and data handlers claimed that the illegal VoIP business boomed recently, after the political government came into power. They said around 50 percent of the calls are handled by illegal VoIP channels at present.
"If the BTCL is able to monitor its IIG traffic and can detect data or voice transferred through the platform (which is only dedicated for data), it will be very easy to stop making illegal calls," said Masud Kabir, managing director of Mango Teleservices Limited.
TOIB members said they provided a free deep packet inspection (DPI) system to BTCL six month ago to detect if anyone uses the data platform for transferring voice.
However, BTCL is yet to install the system. Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, a BTCL high official admitted they did not install the DPI. The official however was not able to say why they did not install the system, which was provided completely free by the TOIB members.
The TOIB president said the government can get Tk 2,500 crore in revenue, if it can stop VoIP business.
He said the TOIB members invested Tk 500 crore so far to develop their infrastructure.
The six private sector calls and data handlers contributed Tk 165 crore in the last six months to the government exchequer.
TOIB is an association of the members of private IGW, ICX and IIG.