Home ›› 13 Jun 2022 ›› Front
The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has fined all four mobile phone operators in the country for allowing their SIM cards and other equipment to be used to illegally route international calls through Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
The regulatory commission has fined these four companies a total of Tk 7.65 crores, with the highest amount levied on the state-owned mobile phone operator Teletalk, according to BTRC notification on Sunday.
“Teletalk was fined Tk 5 crores, Robi was fined Tk 2 crores, Grameenphone was fined Tk 50 lakhs, and Banglalink was fined Tk 15 lakhs,” added the notification.
Signed by BTRC secretary Nurul Hafeez, letters were sent to the errant operators on June 7, instructing them to pay the fines by June 30.
The BTRC seized 32,845 SIM cards used in illegal VoIP connections from Teletalk and fined the company Tk 17.7 crore, which was later reduced to Tk 5 crore following a review.
Similarly, Grameenphone was fined Tk 99 lakh and had 2,356 SIM cards seized. The fine was later reduced to Tk 50 lakh following a petition by the defendant.
For allowing their 16,390 SIMs to be used in illegal VoIP connections, Robi Axiata Ltd was fined Tk 7.5 crore, which was slashed to Tk 2 crore.
And after BTRC seized 753 of Banglalink’s SIM cards, the company was fined TK 33.6 lakh, which was later cut to Tk 15 lakh.
