Government announces rewards for providing information on illegal VoIP

The government will reward citizens providing information on illegal international call termination operations.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 Sept 2015, 10:28 AM
Updated : 3 Sept 2015, 11:13 AM

A circular by the Post and Telecommunication Division says rewards up to Tk 100,000 will be given for information on those running illegal VoIP operations.

It said information can be given directly to the telecommunications secretary or to the chief of the regulatory body, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulator Commission (BTRC).

The identities of those providing information will not be disclosed.

“Rewards up to Tk 100,000 will be given on information verified upon proper investigations,” reads the circular.

The IGW Operators’ Forum (IOF) has also declared rewards of up to Tk 500,000 for the information and ran an advertisement in newspapers on Thursday.

A senior official of the ministry told bdnews24.com legal international calls went down after gateway operators hiked call rate by one third to 2 cents.

State Minister Tarana Halim sat with the Post and Telecommunication Division and the BTRC after that and the move to announce rewards was decided on.

BTRC data show legal international calls have dropped by roughly 20 million minutes daily to 90-95 million minutes.

In September, the regulatory body revised the tariff-sharing deal with gateways alongside cutting down incoming call termination rates. The minimum per minute rate was halved to 1.5 cents.

The BTRC would retain 40 percent of the earnings, IGWs will get 20 percent and Inter Connection Exchanges (ICX) would get 17.5 percent while Access Network Services (ANS) would get 22.5 percent.