Saturday, November 24th, 2007Bangladesh should immediately go for a second submarine cable line as a physical backup for its connectivity with the Information Superhighway and to meet its growing demands for Internet and overseas telecom services, which may shoot up three times by 2011, says a technical committee.The eight-member committee of Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) last month reported that the government's new policy on International Long Distance Telecommunication Services (ILDTS) will push up telecom and Internet demands so high that the existing submarine cable's capacity will be saturated within the next three years.The government may therefore consider choosing one from 10 ...
(read more) Friday, November 9th, 2007The ongoing drive against illegal VoIP operation has resulted in a record jump of overseas telephone calls through the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) system, statistics show.The BTTB is now handling more than 12 million minutes of overseas calls per day as against around four million minutes of calls per day last year. Such a jump however is mainly due to incoming calls.Overseas calls through the "legal" or BTTB channel started to mark a significant upward trend from January this year and rose to the highest number of around 14 million minutes of calls a day during the ...
(read more) Thursday, April 26th, 2007Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) in Rangpur filed cases against 17 former members of parliament from eight northern districts for their outstanding telephone bills of around Tk 40 lakh. BTTB earlier had filed cases against 38 former members of parliament (MP) including the 17 ex-MPs for their outstanding telephone bills totalling nearly Tk 53 lakh.Out of them, 21 had paid off BTTB Tk 19, 20,522 while the other 17 still owed BTTB Tk 39,18,847.BTTB sources in Rangpur said, the bill defaulters were elected in the 5th, 7th and 8th parliament. The defaulters did not pay heed even ...
(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) Thursday, March 22nd, 2007The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday filed graft cases against three former ministers and their families and a former lawmaker.The big fishes facing the corruption charges are former communications minister BNP leader Nazmul Huda, his wife advocate Sigma Huda, former home minister Awami League (AL) leader Mohammad Nasim, former state minister for power BNP leader Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku and former BNP lawmaker Ali Asgar Lobi.Another graft case is expected to be filed with Khagrachhari Police Station against former BNP lawmaker Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan by morning today for acquiring wealth worth Tk 6.15 crore illegally.Khagrachhari police said the ACC had ...
(read more) Friday, March 16th, 2007The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will file cases against six top corruption suspects on Sunday, ACC Commissioner Abul Hassan Manzoor Mannan said in a press briefing yesterday.The ACC commissioner, however, declined to go public with the names at the moment."I cannot disclose the names as another commissioner is currently reviewing the draft First Information Reports (FIRs) that would be submitted to the police stations," he noted.Mannan, however, described the nature of the allegations against the six. "We found inconsistencies between their wealth statements and their identified sources of income," he said.The wealth statements submitted by them indicate that they ...
(read more) Tuesday, March 6th, 2007A high-powered government committee on legalising voice over internet protocol (VoIP) yesterday recommended allowing VoIP licence to all operators, including the providers of mobile, land phone and internet services.The committee proposed four government common platforms for overseas telephony gateway, committee member and Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) General Manager (security and surveillanceo) Lt Col Zia Safdar told reporters.Briefing newsmen at his office after submitting the recommendations to the government, he said the committee also recommended allowing private operators, especially the local companies, to develop more common platforms.The seven-member technical committee headed by Saiful Islam, professor of electrical and electronic ...
(read more) Monday, February 12th, 2007A seven-member technical committee is expected to recommend the government by February 15 how to award licences for the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) quickly by protecting national interest.The committee is also considering limiting the licences to Bangladeshi companies only for now to maximise financial gains for the country, sources said.A quick awarding of licences for VoIP operation has become urgent in the backdrop of the recent crackdown on the illegal internet telephony which has bogged down the cheap and easy international calling system.At the same time, however, in the absence of a common platform through which all VoIP calls ...
(read more) Thursday, January 25th, 2007The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) seized Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipment worth around Tk 25 crore busting an unscrupulous phone service business at Azimpur in the capital yesterday.With yesterday's recovery, the Rab has busted eight unauthorised VoIP business centres -- seven in the capital and one in the port city of Chittagong -- since December 26. The total seized items would be worth several hundred crore taka, Rab officials said.Illegal VoIP operators use the equipment to generate or terminate overseas calls by first turning voice calls into data, routing it over the internet and then turning the data ...
(read more) Wednesday, January 24th, 2007Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members arrested three people and seized a huge quantity of equipment used to run unauthorised voice over internet protocol (VoIP) business from an office at Purana Paltan in the capital on Monday.Members of Rab 2 arrested the owner of the office Mainul Islam Khan and two of its staff, Abdul Kuddus and Shohag, during an eight-hour long raid that ended at 10:00pm that night.The seized equipment includes computers, 228 SIM (subscriber identity module) cards of different cellular phone service operators, 42 telluler devices and many coils of internet cables. Rab officials said the estimated price ...
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