What's happening inside BTTB?

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Shahiduzzaman Khan
BTTB subscribers could never find the mystery behind large overbloated land phone bills despite the fact that call rate has been reduced considerably. So have been the line rent and the long distance call charges. When the customers began to crowd the BTTB offices, its officials did not listen to their problems. They used to say bluntly : 'Bills are prepared by the computer and you know, computer cannot do mistakes'.
But now the mystery is beginning to be unravelled. A report published in a national vernacular daily this week suggested that a section of dishonest BTTB employees -- engineers and technicians included -- are using thousands of land phone lines to operate illegal voice over internal protocol (VoIP) business and earning millions of taka causing substantial losses to the revenue earning of the government.
What is happening inside BTTB is really alarming. A section of officials and employees of the Board's billing section, switch room operators, system analysts and linesmen of 25 exchanges of the city formed an unholy nexus and are engaged in this clandestine business of call terminations for hundreds of thousands minutes. The unscrupulous employees targeted thousands of land phones of the subscribers and are using their lines for such illegal business. As such, the bills of those BTTB subscribers are being inflated. It's not the fault of the customers. As the billing staffs divert those numbers to their illegal VoIP business, the computer is diligently claiming those bills from the 'poor' customers.
Why is not this illegal business by a section of BTTB officials being seriously accounted for? This remains also a mystery. The report under mention above said that a good number of BTTB directors, engineers and other technical staff are allegedly well connected with illegal VoIP business. A fixed wireless terminal set for use in VoIP establishments was supplied by a private firm owned by a T&T technician. The 'blessed' technician has allegedly amassed Tk 500 million by operating illegal VoIP business by this time.
Illegal VoIP business flourished during the immediate past alliance government in the absence of proper guidelines over awarding licences to the operators. After the takeover of the present caretaker government, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) aided by the joint forces started crackdown on the illegal VoIP establishments across the country and seized clandestine exchanges, ISD calling cards, call termination equipment etc., worth billions of dollars. Due to the raids, the government could avoid revenue loss of some billions of taka. But the outside world really became a distant place for many soon after this incident. Earlier, people could call their relatives overseas by using cheap calling cards of the illegal operators. With their elimination, oversees call network got almost bogged down. Limited circuits of the BTTB could hardly withstand the tremendous pressure of the international call seekers. Stagnation in the international call system still continues.
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has recently announced the long awaited VoIP policy that specified the licencing method for Internet telephony system. By announcing guidelines, the government handed over most important responsibilities to the BTTB. All private operators, on getting licence, will have to use BTTB facilities including its sub-marine cable. The BTTB has a bad name of being one of the thoroughly 'corrupt' organisations in Bangladesh. Its CBA leader has already landed in jail in an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) case for acquiring fabulous riches beyond his known sources. Many studies concluded that the engineers and officials posted in various 'sensitive' departments of BTTB are corrupt and earned ill-gotten wealth. There were several moves to make the BTTB a holding company. But the strong employees union resisted the move and forced the government to almost abandon the idea.
In making BTTB responsible for VoIP operations, the government did not keep provisions for second lines of defence. For example, if any BTTB facility breaks down, the private operators will have to suffer. In case the Board's submarine cable snaps, the whole VoIP operation will definitely collapse. There is no standby system that can take over immediately. It is still unclear whether the government really means to launch an effective VoIP system. People could call the USA, Canada etc., countries at Tk 3.0 a minute through ISD calling cards of erstwhile illegal operators. Now they have to spend Tk 7.50 a minute through BTTB calling cards to the same destinations. It appears that the BTTB won't be able to bring down the charges due to its bureaucratic tangles and huge expenditure -- mostly inflated. Private operators are the only hopes. If they get adequate facilities, the people may again tend to call overseas destinations at lower prices. Yet they also need to be made accountable within the country's tax net.
The story began with the latest discovery that the BTTB men have been indulging in illegal VoIP business. In order to go for immediate solution, the government may form a high-powered committee to see what is really happening in the Board's exchanges. The committee may include representatives from the administration and the joint forces. The subscribers who have been served overbloated bills must get their money back. The committee must find how their bills were manipulated and in what way this can be adjusted with their next bills. This is very important. The Board cannot make a 'mockery' with the revenue income of the government. By transfering one's responsibility to the other and making him the victim of the circumstances is, definitely, a serious crime.