& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

10 GP high-ups sued for VoIP involvement

Local AccessTel, Malaysia's DiGi Tel also stand accused

M d Hasan
The telecoms watchdog has filed a case against 10 former and in service high officials including two former CEOs at the country's top mobile phone operator Grameenphone, accusing their involvement in illegal international call termination orVoIP.
Grameenphone. AccessTel. a local internet service provider, and Malaysia-based international call carrier DiGi Telecommunications are also on the accused list.
Bangladesh TeIe -communication and Regulator)' Commission (BTRC) filed the case at Gulshan police station on January 16.
According to the FIR, the accused former Grameenphone officials are Erik Aas and Ola Ree. chief executive officers, Thor Randhaug, technical director. Yogesh Sanjeev Malik, chief techni-cal officer, and Mehboob Chowdhury, director, sales and marketing.
The sitting accused Grameen officials are Khalid Hasan, director (regulatory and corporate affairs), Md Shafiqul Islam, chief technical officer, Kafil HS Muyeed, director (new business), Md Arif Al Islam, director finance, and Espen Wiig Warendroph, head of revenue assurance.
The two former CEOs left the company in December 2004 and January 2007 respectively.
In the FIR, the telecoms regulatory body said these three companies and individuals were involved in providing international call termination facility or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
“As the case is under investigation, we'll not comment on this. We're fully cooperating with the
investigators in this regard," a GP spokesperson told The Daily Star yesterday over phone.
The January 16 case is a followup of an 8-day long RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) raid starting from December 6, 2007 on the GP head office at Gulshan. The raid found huge equipment of illegalVoIP.
During the raid the RAB officials claimed that they had evidences that GP provided VoIP equipment to AccessTel to run illegal call termination business. The law enforcers found four circuits of El technology that connected the GP line with the AcccssTel's.
The DiGi Telecommunications has been accused as it has a bilateral deal with the GP to terminate the latter's international call. Norway- based Telenor, the major stakeholder of Grameenphone, is also a shareholder of Digi Telecommunication.
BTRC sources said GP terminated international calls through DiGi. The GP's earnings from international calls are deposited with Webstein Bank, Singapore. But a considerable amount of money might be siphoned off from the bank instead of its dispatch to Bangladesh, apprehends BTRC.
"On examining some phone email documents and phone tapping of GP high officials, we can clearly say that the high-ups of the company were involved in the malpractice," said a BTRC high official.
He said the matter is now under investigation and everything will be decided in the court.
The law enforcers tapped GP's calls and found that AccessTel was being used in terminating calls through El technology. El is an all-digital communications line that allows the transmission of voice, data, video, and graphics at very high speeds over standard communication lines.
The law enforcers also seized some internal emails and records that proved GP high officials' involvement in illegalVoIP
In February 2007, BTRC filed another case against the
Grameenphone accusing it of having involvement in VoIP. BTRC fined Grameenphone Tk!68crore for its involvement in illegalVoIP
The BTRC also fined CityCeil Tkl50 crore, AKTEL Tk 145 crore, and Banglalink Tk 125 crore for illegalVoIP trade.
VoIP is a technology that allows someone to make voice calls using
a broadband internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phoneline.
Some VoIP services may only allow calling other people using the same service, but others may allow calling anyone who has a telephone number - including local, long distance, mobile and international ones.
Bangladesh's GrameenTelecom holds GP's 38percent shares and Norway's Telenor the remaining 62 percent The company with an over 16million subscription base is preparing to offload its shares in the capital market by the third quarter of the current calendar year.