Monday, June 7, 2010

BD Govt. opening up VoIP ! ! !

Bangladesh Government decides to provide 3,500 VoIP license from June, 2010. The Ministry already approved the recommendations in this regards.

The government has decided to issue more than 3,500 licences to the local entrepreneurs for handling international calls to and from Bangladesh through voice over internet protocol technology, which is still prohibited under the existing law.
“The licences will be issued to the new entrants within next three months after the Telecom Regulatory Act 2010 gets parliament's nod,” Telecom Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju said yesterday.
The minister's disclosure is expected to bring all illegal VoIP operators under a legal framework.
Industry insiders said at present more than 1,500 people are involved in illegal VoIP business.
The minister was speaking at a press meet with Telecom Reporters Network Bangladesh at the head office of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd. (BTCL) in the capital.
Sunil Kanti Bose, posts and telecommunications secretary, explained a bit more about this saying anyone can do the VoIP business under the legal framework at affordable costs.
“After taking the VoIP licence, the operation cost of a licensee would be maximum Tk 5 lakh,” said Bose.
Around 60 million minutes of international calls are made to and from Bangladesh a day. Industry insiders say presently more than 20 percent of the total calls are still routing by the illegal VoIP operators.
VoIP has become a lucrative business as the technology offers international calls at charges much lower than the legal calls. Hundreds of people have been engaged in this business.
The government has recently cancelled licences of five landline operators for their involvement in illegal international call termination through VoIP technology.
The operators are RanksTel, Dhaka Phone, National Telecom, Peoples Tel and WorldTel. Besides, licences of more than 20 internet service providers were cancelled for the same reason.
Some BTRC licensed IP Telephony Operators (IPTSP) are commercially launched their services in country. BDCOM's "Katha" and Fusion Net's "ApnarPhone" are the major IPTSP operators of Bangladesh who are currently officially launched and lots of subscribers are using their powerful IP-Phones. In absence of major active PSTN companies, currently only the Mobile Operators and IPTSP Operators are active in the market with their ready phone services from private sector. So, the proposed VoIP customers must use these operators' phone services for the VoIP purposes without any other alternates. Some experts believe that without proper guidelines and details specifications, introducing the PSTN operators is one of the major wrong decision of former government policymakers. Some PSTN operators using the same technologies and products which GSM / CDMA / IP-Telephony operators are using whereas the only public owned BTTB (now BTCL) is operating landphone or PSTN service through cable. Also the telecom experts comment that this AL government is much more keen and knowledgeable about the prospects of techncology as also the PM's Son is an IT professional. So, we can expect the excellent and long-term startegies & plans for the development and welfare of the IT & Telecommunication sector of Bangladesh.
Source: The Daily Star, Friday, May 21, 2010