Following analysis is by bdnews24.com
ANALYSIS VoIP sans public interest Abu Saeed Khan bdnews24.com Technology Editor Dhaka, March 6 (bdnews24.com) Fax machines pioneered affordable and efficient international data communication and yet in the mid-80s, the then military junta blocked the use of this device in the name of national security. State-owned Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) also opposed fax to "safeguard the government's earnings" from its horribly expensive and terribly inefficient telex service. Fax has never threatened Bangladesh's national security. The exchequer has also not gone broke due to its widespread use. In fact, Bangladeshi exporters would have stood nowhere today if it were not for this gadget. Then came along email and it has allowed them to do business much more quickly and efficiently since the mid-90s. Wonder why this brief on the international data communications history in Bangladesh? It is because the interim government is grappling with similar challenges to liberalise the international voice communication services. The four-party alliance government's so called ICT task force gave birth to this bizarre idea of "legalising" VoIP in 2003. A legion of perceived ICT gurus graced the crowd to do the brainstorming. The cabinet accordingly approved that impractical doctrine of "legalising" VoIP. Birds of a feather. The country has been chasing the mirage of "legalised" VoIP since then. Litigation temporarily subdued that hype but it revived soon after the case was resolved in early February of 2007. This time the interim government has been sucked into the ICT task force's intellectual nuisance. It formed a committee to figure out the best way to "legalise" VoIP. Two engineering university teachers, two BTTB officials (one of them deputed from army signals corps), one telecoms ministry official (deputed from BTTB) and one BTRC official are the original members. Another army signal corps official was included later on. Professor Saiful Islam of BUET chaired this seven-member body. These individuals may be the stalwarts in their respective discipline, but their understanding of international telecoms operations is questionable. The BTTB officials sitting on the committee is also grossly inconsistent since the committee is to create BTTB's competitors in international gateway. The body submitted its recommendations to the telecoms adviser on March 4. The committee's chairman, Saiful Islam and its member, BTTB's general manager Lt. Col. Zia Safdar, have briefed the media. A terrible roadmap to "legalise" VoIP has emerged from discussions with them. Evidently, this committee has prioritised "national security" and "exchequer's earnings" over affordable, good quality international phone calls. Quite a similar psyche the deposed military dictator HM Ershad had against the use of fax. The committee has proposed issuing licences to the fixed and mobile phone operators for deploying voice over internet protocol or VoIP technology in their networks. But licences are issued for services, not for technologies. For instance, licences have been issued for mobile phone services. It never dictates if GSM or CDMA technology will be used. Fixed phone licences also do not specify if the subscribers are to be connected wireless or through wire. If the government issues VoIP licences, it also has to do the same for other technologies like voice over time division multiplexing or voice over asynchronous transfer mode, which is absurd. So, the proposed "VoIP licence" will be a meaningless exercise. The committee has done the worst damage by prohibiting the establishment of international voice gateways by the existing private telecoms providers. It has rather promoted a private third party to setup the gateway. Fixed and mobile phone operators will be connected with this carefully crafted private sector monopoly that will process the overseas calls. It is like owning a fleet while someone else owns the vessels' engines. This committee is promoting a rouge private sector monopoly. This entity will create duopoly with BTTB. It takes BTTB months to get the government's consent on price reduction. The private monopoly will exploit this flawed bureaucratic process and outpace BTTB in mission critical decisions. This is how the BTTB's existence in international gateway will be eclipsed by the private monopoly. Eventually the later will dictate the market terms. People will be penalised with high international call rates and the illegal call termination outfits will proliferate. No one can guarantee that such illicit establishments are not the terrorists' preferred cash cow. Therefore, the committee's recommendations are highly prone to backfire at our national security. They are also counterproductive to the exchequer's earnings. Above all, the entire doctrine is grossly detrimental to the consumers' interest. Let the government decide next steps. ____________________________________________________________________________________ No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go with Yahoo! Mail for Mobile. Get started. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mail [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
