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Download PDF In the first ever seizure of Internet Protocol Television Broadcasting (IPTB) equipment in the country, a rather new system of television broadcasting through the internet, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday seized a large quantity of them in the capital.
The drive was carried out in cooperation with officials of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
IPTB is a new system of providing television broadcasting service through cable TV operators, needing fibre optics facility for carrying the signal. Consumers can watch TV on the internet using the service if they are on the users log and have passwords to get access.
The service providers have to create user groups using an intranet system, and they have to provide configured CPUs to the consumers.
According to sources, Cable Entertainment Ltd (CEL), a sister concern of MGH Group, launched the IPTB service on a small scale having only six patch panels, each of which has the capacity of providing the service to a maximum of 48 to 50 clients.
BTRC and Rab sources said they discovered the patch panels at six places in the city’s upscale Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara areas, which are of narrow bandwidths.
After raiding the IPTB centres, BTRC Assistant Director Onamika Bhakta filed a case against CEL with the city’s Gulshan police on charges of operating the business in violation of BTRC rules, and for importing the equipment evading customs duties in the guise of computer accessories import.
Rab and BTRC officials estimated the market value of the seized equipment at Tk 3 crore.
Squadron Leader Fazlullah Ansari, deputy director of the Legal and Media Wing of Rab, said the drive was carried out by a committee formed comprising officials from BTRC and the elite crime fighting unit with the aim of inspecting, monitoring and identifying the telecommunications service providers in the country.
Lieutenant Khandakar Al Moyeen, assistant director (operations) of the Rab Headquarters who led the drive, said they seized the IPTB equipment by raiding at least seven places in Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara.
He also said during the seven-hour drive, from 10:00am to 05:00pm, the main targets were CEL’s offices in the Land Mark building in Gulshan-2 and in Eastern Nibash at 138 Gulshan Avenue.
No arrest however was made, as the raiders found no one at those places, Lt Moyeen said adding that the CEL authorities committed two crimes — of evading customs duties by importing the equipment on the pretext of importing computer accessories, and of violating the BTRC rules by running the business without a license.
He also said MGH Group operates a legitimate cable service providing business too, using an analogue system but the group used a digital system to provide the IPTB services.
Zianshah Kabir, another director of BTRC, said as a case was filed against CEL, its managing director, all other directors, and the managers will also be implicated.
He also said the government however has no policy formulated yet regarding providing of the IPTB service in Bangladesh although the use of it is becoming increasingly popular all over the world.
“During the drive, we found the IPTB system turned off but they had run it earlier as part of its test transmissions,” he said adding, “CEL had applied to BTRC for a licence for providing the service, but it was turned down by the commission as the government has no policy in place yet for regulating the business.”
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