Bangladesh: 3 mobile operators lodge complaints against Teletalk with BTRC

Dhaka, July 8 (New Age): Three private mobile phone companies have lodged a complaint with the telecom regulator that the use of state-run Teletalk’s SIM cards has increased rapidly for illegal voice over internet protocol business. Grameenphone, Banglalink and Robi in a joint letter to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission last week said that Teletalk’s SIMs were being used for illegal VoIP, causing revenue losses to the stakeholders, said BTRC officials. The three operators in separate analyses to the BTRC for April-June period showed that the trend of Teletalk SIM use for illegal VoIP was higher. The letter also said the SIM Box Detection System, a system for tracking illegal VoIP, detected huge number of Teletalk SIMs compared with others. The data showed in May 28-June 27, the SIM Box Detection System found 38,613 VoIP SIMs of Teletalk while the numbers were 6,080 for Airtel, 1,217 for Robi, 511 for Banglalink and 472 for GP. Operators in a calculation showed that Average Call Duration of Teletalk for international call was much higher than any other operator. The ACD of Teletalk ranged between 4.4 minutes and 5.48 minutes whereas the ACD of other operators was 1.3-2.7 minutes. ‘This higher ACD represents Teletalk’s involvement in terminating international calls illegally,’ claimed the letter. ‘We would now request the BTRC to take necessary initiatives to implement self-regulation process at Teletalk network,’ said the letter which was signed by the chief executive officers of the three companies. Asked about the issue, Teletalk acting managing director Gias Uddin Ahmed told New Age that he was not aware of such a letter. ‘I know nothing like this,’ he told New Age over phone on Monday. Gias said that he could not immediately give the details of call termination of Teletalk.