Bangladesh News

The government finally declared yesterday that it will sell licences to private operators at an auction in October for running the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) business.

It has decided to sell licences for three international gateways (IGW) and two interconnect exchanges (ICX) to the highest bidders.

The much-awaited declaration that came at a press briefing at the telecommunications ministry yesterday will mean an end to the government’s monopoly over IGW, the mechanism through which international calls are sent and received.

In a written statement, the telecoms authorities announced that the government has approved the much-awaited International Long Distance Telecommunication Services (ILDTS) Policy, 2007 to liberalise VoIP, also called internet telephony.

Telecommunications Secretary Sheikh Khurshid Alam and Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Maj Gen (retired) Manzurul Alam were present at the briefing.

Under the ILDTS policy, no foreign companies including the present land and mobile phone operators will be eligible to take part in the bidding for the licences.

“This is for the first time the government will give private outlets licences for international gateways and interconnection exchanges,” said Manzurul Alam.

All the three IGWs will be set up in Dhaka and connected to the BTTB submarine cable. Under the two ICX licences, there will be two exchanges set up in Dhaka and one each in Chittagong, Sylhet, Bogra and Khulna.

Besides, the government will issue a licence for Internet exchange (IX) in private sector. Primarily, only Dhaka and Chittagong will have an exchange to provide the access network service (ANS) operators with data services.

Over the last few years, a powerful cartel pocketed crores of taka from illegal Internet telephony, depriving the government of huge revenues.

BTRC Chairman Manzurul Alam said, “Only the companies fully owned by Bangladeshi residents will be able to bid for these international telecommunication licences.”

Under the policy, the government will not issue fresh licences for VSAT (very small aperture terminal) while the existing VSATs will be shut down in phases.

“The present IGW, ICX and IX of the BTTB will remain functional but they (BTTB) too will have to take licences from the BTRC,” said Alam.

The private international phone services are expected to begin by April 2008.

The BTRC will invite applications for the licences in September and after two weeks, they will organise a pre-bid meeting before holding the auction in October, said the BTRC boss.

According to the policy, the government has decided to establish a three-tier telecommunications infrastructure. The first stage will involve international gateways that will be hooked up to the submarine cable and interconnection exchanges.

The second stage will have interconnection exchanges linked to the international gateways and access network service (ANS). At the final stage, the ANS will provide direct services to the customers.