Teletalk SIM cards used the most in illegal VoIP businesses

SIM cards of the State-run mobile phone operator Teletalk are widely used in illegal Voice over Internet Protocol(VoIP) business as it is not complying with BTRC’s directives to prevent illegal call termination and fake registration, said a letter from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

The letter was issued by the BTRC on October 16 asking the Teletalk authorities to properly implement the self-regulation Process (SRP) as per its directives to detect illegal SIM/RIM.

During BTRC drives conducted from September 15 to September 21 through SIM Box Detection (SBD) system and SRP, the governing body discovered huge amounts of Teletalk SIM cards in the illegal business.

During the one-week drive around 11,613 SIM cards of Teletalk were recovered and 38 SIM cards of Robi Axiata Ltd, 155 of Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd, 47 of Airtel Bangladesh Ltd, 23 of Grameenphone Ltd and 3 of Citycell cards were also found being used in the VoIP hubs.

In 2012, The BTRC installed a Self-Regulation Barring (SDB) system in association with the mobile phone operators in order to stop illegal call termination and false registration.

The Commission has also formed six inspection teams and carried out a 26-hour drive to check whether the SRP process is properly being followed by the mobile phone operators.

After the drive, the inspection teams identified 1,469 SIM cards of five mobile phone operators used in VoIP while the number of Teletalk SIM used in the business was 32,996. That is 22.5 times higher than the total SIM cards of other operators.

Although there was an instruction from the BTRC to disconnect the SIM cards used in VoIP business as early as possible, Teletalk did not take immediate steps in this regard which caused revenue losses for the country.

BTRC officials declined to make any comment about the issue when contacted.