Illegal SIM used to mint money thru VoIP

Khairul Islam | July 07, 2014 00:00:00

Telecom operators and internet-service providers have proposed building up a central database for suspected mobile SIM cards to detect illegal VoIP (voice over internet protocol) call terminations that reportedly fetched fortunes for many in the business.

The proposal on SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) database came at a meeting with the telecom regulator held Sunday. The brainstorming on ways of preventing the ill-gotten bonanza happens to have taken place following reports about involvement of some influential in the unauthorized trade.

Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) convened the meeting to protect telecommunication-related illegal activities in the country in the wake of criticisms concerning illegal VoIP business.

Sources at the BTRC said that the representatives from BTRC, mobile-phone operators, International Gateway (IGW) service providers and Interconnection Exchange (ICX) operators were present at the meeting.

A BTRC high official, who was present at the meeting, informed the FE that the telecom watchdog and service-providers are also agreed to detect fake registered SIM cards that are allegedly used in VoIP call terminations across the country.

"The operators proposed to synchronise the registered SIM numbers through verifying with the national identity card," the official said.

"Once the proposal is granted, it would be easier to check use of multiple SIM cards from the similar operator," the official said.

Currently, he added, anyone could get unlimited SIMs by supplying photocopy of his or her national ID card.

Participating in the meeting, the IGW operators proposed to revise the existing international incoming call rate to discourage illegal VoIP call terminators in the country.

The official thinks the current international call rate as well as revenue-sharing portion with the government is much high, which encouraged illegal call termination.

According to the regulator's statistics, average volume of the legal VoIP call terminations in the current month is nearly 50 million minutes every day. However, as per the data of international carrier, the country terminates around 114 million calls a day.