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Bangladesh anti-terrorist force seizes VoIP carrier equipment
2007-04-03
The raid, that was pretty much like setting the British SAS to attack a local post office, occurred over the weekend at the headquarters of mobile operator Aktel and the equipment taken included four STMs, four soft switches, gateways, and two racks that shelved the STMs. It is not known how much resistance was offered but it seems the kit, regognising overwhelmingly superior force when it saw it, went quietly in the end.
Engineers and officials of Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) also took part in the raid in which no arrests were made. It is not known if these people too were sporting Rambo costumes.
Government officials say Aktel had provided the illegal VoIP services to five companies: Future Data Network, Brothers International, Orbitar Technologies, Sun Trading and Islam and Brothers and add that the swoop on the Aktel office was part of an ongoing drive against businesses allegedly providing VoIP service in contravention of Bangladesh’s 2001 Telecommunications Act.
Earlier raids took place in December last when officials targeted other VoIP operations in the capital.
Illegal VoIP services have sprouted and flourished in Bangladesh in recent years as sporadic and half-hearted efforts by the government to introduce legal IP telephony services have floundered and come to naught.
Last month the country’s interim government announced yet another plan, this time to make voice over Internet Protocol services available through VSATs for a temporary period because of the ongoing delay in setting up four exchanges to route and monitor the country’s VoIP traffic.
The establishment of the VoIP exchanges irst stalled more than a year ago after the Bangladeshi government cancelled two tenders because of alleged corruption. Officials are now evaluating the proposals of four telecoms equipment manufacturers for a third tender, but are doing so with little sense of urgency in a country crying out for accessible cheaper alternatives to the country’s feeble fixed line network.
Despite public demand and the fact that the government started the VoIP service licensing process back in 2003, the technology remains illegal.
The Internet Service Providers Association has also weighed into the debate, urging the government to grant Internet telephony licences only to ISPs in an effort to boost taxation revenues.
The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission says it plans to issue VoIP licences in three categories – for mobile phone operators, public switched telecom network operators and ISPs – but seems unsure whether it will happen this year, next year, sometime or never.
By CommsDay
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