A
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission order that asked VoIP
service providers to pay the annual licence fee by March 25 has created
confusion over the submission deadline, said officials concerned.
VSPs
said they had received the order on March 29 but it did not specify the year of
claim of the annual fees whereas a proposal for waiving the first year’s annual
fees for the service providers was pending before the telecom ministry.
Asked
about the issue Bangladesh Association of VoIP Service Provider secretary
Khondoker Romel told New Age on Tuesday that the situation was confusing for
the operators.
‘We
could not pay the annual fee as the order was unclear and confusing. When we
received it, the last date of payment was already gone,’ he said.
Romel
said the VSPs were facing huge difficulties as most of the operators were yet
to get connectivity from the IGWs.
‘The
order also did not mention about the year of claim. We don’t know we will pay
for which year’s annual fees as our previous year’s fees could be waived,’ he
said.
The
government in January 2013 issued 844 VSP licences in a bid to discourage
illegal voice over internet protocol business.
In
May 2013, the BTRC in a directive asked the International Gateway services to
serve 35 VSP operators under revenue sharing model.
BTRC
officials said a large number of licences were given under political
consideration and many licensees did not have enough technical support to run
the business.
‘The
VSPs are losing business case because of issues such huge number of licences. A
large number of VSPs are yet to tag with the IGWs because of various
complexities,’ a BTRC official told New Age.
No official BTRC comment regarding the
submission deadline confusion could be collected, despite several attempts by
New Age. (Source: New Age, April 1, 2015)