The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will begin issuance of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) licences from March 25 legalising the business, according to informed sources.The BTRC on Wednesday served a notice to the companies those submitted their licence acquisition fee asking them to receive their licences from the commission.
According to the notice signed by deputy director Tareq Hasan Siddique the companies would have to receive their licences by the stipulated time.
The proprietors of the companies have to be present with their attested copy of national ID card and visiting card, in some cases they have to submit the main copy of letter of authorisation to receive the VoIP licence.
Some 844 companies, out of the nominated 1,004 entities, will get licences for legal VoIP business.
The government hoped that following the issuance of the VoIP licences, the number of illegal VoIP calls will be reduced while the government revenue will be increased.
The government is expected to earn revenues of at least Tk. 1,200 crore each year following the issuance of VoIP licences, according to a source in the BTRC.
“The commission has been working to hand over VoIP licences to 844 companies,” he said.
He said the VoIP licence would be given to those companies which submitted licence acquisition fees within the extended timeframe, which ended on February 28. The BTRC official said the VoIP licences have been given to both public and private companies for the first time in the country for legalising the business.
The BTRC issued letters to 1,004 companies selected by the ministry of telephones and telecommunications to receive VoIP licences. They were asked to submit a licence acquisition fee of Tk. 500,000 each by February 14. Later, the deadline for submitting the licence acquisition fees was extended to February 28.
Earlier, a total of 1,508 companies submitted applications seeking VoIP licences. In the first phase, a total of 808 companies deposited licence acquisition fees and 36 remaining companies deposited fees during the extended period.
BTRC sources said the total size of the present VoIP market is 70 million calls per day. Of these, almost 30 million are terminated in an illegal way.
The VoIP licence holders will work as the retailers for termination of international VoIP calls while IGW operators will work as the wholesalers.
(Greenwatch Dhaka report)
