Although the number of illegal international phone call terminations being made from Dhaka has been brought down in recent times, the practice has increased in areas outside the capital, authorities concerned have observed.
A meeting of a high-level committee at the telecom regulator’s office also observed that the illegal call termination situation was under control in most of Dhaka except for a few “protected” areas where they had no jurisdiction, said a senior RAB official who was present at the meeting.
Illegal termination, however, had increased in cities like Chittagong and Sylhet as internet price was slashed and more internet bandwidth available there.
This was the first meeting since the telecom regulator formed the committee against illegal call termination last April that comprises representatives from the RAB, the Police, the DB, the CID, the SB and other agencies.
Md Sarwar Alam, member of the committee and a BTRC director, also acknowledged the issues that were discussed at the meeting.
In the meeting, BTRC officials said over the last one and half year, mobile operators had blocked around 52 lakh SIMs that were allegedly used for illegal termination.
In 2013, operators blocked 31 lakh SIMs following 27 drives; while during the first half of 2014, RAB carried out 34 drives and blocked 21 lakh SIMs.
The BTRC asked for more police involvement in investigating cases regarding illegal call termination as the progress was sluggish and no charge sheet was being submitted despite the filing of around a dozen cases every year.
Police officials said investigation process was not going faster as they were not involved with the process.
The committee decided to increase their operation frequency even in mobile operators’ office. The government body also discussed Facebook crimes being committed against the state.
Committee Convener Brig Gen Md Wahid-Uz-Zaman, also the director general of Spectrum Management Division, presided over the meeting where representatives from every agency were present.
The country receives around 5.5 crore minutes of legal international calls per day, according to BTRC statistics. However, it is also estimated that around 2-2.5 crore minutes are illegally terminated every day.
