No question of closing down Imo, Viber, WhatsApp: Tarana

The government will not be shutting down free calling apps for smartphones, says State Minister for Telecoms Tarana Halim.

"Illegal VoIP activities have to be ended completely, the government's has a zero tolerance policy toward this," she told bdnews24.com at her office at the Secretariat.

"Imo, Viber, WhatsApp… these apps will not be prohibited. There is no question about it."

Shahjahan Mahmood, Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), had earlier said Bangladesh was falling behind in revenues from international calls because of these over-the-top (OTT) apps.

The authorities would reach a decision about these apps in the next two months, he told a press briefing on Friday.

The remark touched off a storm on social media websites, with many seeing the move as a contradiction to the government's promise of building a digital Bangladesh.

Before the increase of International Call Termination rates, 120 million minutes of incoming calls would be made to Bangladesh every day. The figure came down to 70 million minutes after the rates were increased in August, 2015, said the BTRC chief.

But that was not the only reason behind a slump in incoming calls, he said.

Easy access to the internet on mobile phones and the subsequent popularity of apps like Skype and Viber was creating an impact on voice calls, he added.

"This is a huge crisis for us. Not only because of illegal VoIP, but we are also losing a lot of calls to OTT apps like Viber, Imo and WhatsApp. But I cannot give you a figure right now."