Govt cuts int’l call rate by $.002

The government has reduced the international call rate from $0.006 to $0.004, which came into effect on Wednesday.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) earlier decided to reduce the call rate, which was later approved by the Posts and Telecommunications Division.

The government came up with the decision as the number of international calls had reduced significantly due to illegal calls made through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Over the Top (OTT) systems.

Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar told The Business Post calls made through legal channels had decreased due to VoIP and OTT calls, which was also causing distress to operators doing business legally.

“The call rate has been cut to save legitimate operators,” he stated.

Foreign calls come through the IGW-U (International Gateway) operators. Their association, IOF, earlier applied to the BTRC seeking a call rate reduction. The drop in the number of international calls has also hampered the government’s revenue collection.

Sources said in May last year, legal international incoming calls amounted to 7,88,90,000 minutes, which slipped to 66,42,79,937 minutes in June and 60,58,86,620 minutes in August.

Income from all legal calls is distributed among BTRC, the IGW operators, interconnection exchange ICX, and mobile and telephone operators.