Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday unveiled an ambitious digitisation plan for building Bangladesh as a country fully furnished with modern telecommunications system for faster delivery of services to the people.Under the mega-scheme 'Digital Bangladesh: Plan of Connecting People', all Union Parishads will be linked with fibre-optic network, upazilas will also get Community e-Centre, and hospitals and schools get computer, web-cam and internet.Already, 100 Union Parishads have been selected for giving fibre-optic cable connections while another 1,000 unions will be bound with the cross-country cable network soon.Addressing the inaugural ceremony of Concept Paper on 'Digital Bangladesh: Plan of Connecting People' at ...
(read more) Monday, November 12th, 2007The country's telecom watchdog fined Aktel Tk 145 crore for its involvement in the illegal use of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or call termination business.Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) in a press release said during recent raids by the law enforces, Aktel's involvement in illegal call termination business was ascertained.Talking to The Daily Star, BTRC Chairman Maj Gen (retd) Manzurul Alam said, "Aktel has already paid Tk 72.50 crore to the national exchequer."Telekom Malaysia International Bangladesh (TMIB) is the 70 percent stakeholder of Aktel.Aktel is not alone in paying the government compensation. Earlier, country's largest mobile phone ...
(read more) Thursday, June 7th, 2007Detained former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, who already made newspaper headlines by revealing startling information about his and his cohorts' corruption in the past five years, is now facing a fresh allegation of another astounding corruption. The complaint was filed with the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) by a USA based telecom service provider WorldTel Holdings Ltd (WTH).Chairman of WTH Lennert Borman, through his lawyer, filed the complaint saying the once powerful former state minister helped siphon Tk 46 crore off-shore from local banks through sheer forgery, and he used the police, telecom ministry, and Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission ...
(read more) Sunday, April 8th, 2007The government is likely to impose financial penalties and regulatory punishment on mobile phone companies for their involvement in illegal VoIP operation which has deprived the nation of huge tax and revenue for several years, telecoms ministry sources said.Beginning from January, the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) has busted several dozen illegal VoIP operations and some of these surprisingly lead directly or indirectly to GrameenPhone (GP), Aktel and Banglalink. Further investigations are going on against other phone companies.The government has already filed cases against the GP, Aktel and Banglalink for illegal VoIP operation.These operations have deprived the national exchequer ...
(read more) Saturday, February 10th, 2007A few foreign mobile phone operators, which take out profits of hundreds of millions of dollars from Bangladesh each year, have been largely supporting the phenomenally growing illegal VoIP business in the country.Quoting a confidential study of a top international phone company, an industry insider said the mobile operators' billing patterns indicate that there is a market of 2.5 billion paid minutes in only mobile termination per year.With 90 percent VoIP (voice over internet protocol) traffic terminating on mobile networks, the mobile companies make at least 66 paisa per minute from each call. The remaining calls are terminated through the ...
(read more) Thursday, October 12th, 2006After sitting idle for nearly three years on licensing internet telephony, Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is now hurrying award of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) licences without ensuring first a common platform for VoIP operators.The BTRC received 51 applications for VoIP licences on October 8. Applicants include 31 Internet Service Providers (ISPs), 14 Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTNs) and six mobile phone companies.But without a common platform, powerful illegal VoIP operators who are among these applicants will now easily get BTRC licences, and will not only eat up the market of Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) but ...
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