1000 VoIP licences on way

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has cleared 1004 organisations for VSP (VoIP Service Provider) licences in its efforts to crack down on illegal international call termination, which costs the government Tk 50 million in lost revenue every day.

Its Secretary Abubakar Siddique told bdnews24.com on Monday evening that a list containing names of the companies had been sent to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

Chairman of the telecom regulator Sunil Kanti Bose said the licences would be issued ‘soon’ on the basis of the ministry’s recommendations.

On July 22 last year, the BTRC invited applications from the entrepreneurs posting the final VoIP guideline on its website and 1,500 applied. The BTRC forwarded the applications to the ministry after evaluation on Jan 1.

The telecom watchdog graded the applicants based on their qualifications.

A high official at the ministry told bdnews24.com that the marks ranged between 25 and 90 in the evaluation.

According to the VoIP guidelines, the licence will be issued for "VoIP Service Provider (VSP)".

The government formulated the guideline in 2011 to curb the illegal international call termination through VoIP for maximising government revenue.

According to the BTRC, the legal average daily international calls amount to nearly 30 million minutes while 10 million minutes of calls are made through illegal channel. Bangladesh receives around 55-60 million minutes VoIP calls a day.

The government receives three cents from each international call.