Illegal VoIP costs dear

Illegal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) users have been giving sleepless nights to service providers in the Saarc region. In a recent development, Nepal's state run operator Nepal Telecom (NT) has found that people operating illegal VoIP channels are costing it up to NPR 600 million ($8.38 million) per annum in lost revenues.

Surendra Thike, the spokesman of the company says that racketeers operating illegal VoIP channels from around 20 points in Kathmandu Valley are costing it NPR 50 million every month in lost revenues. However, the state is clamping down on the process and the hopes that 'given closure of all the illegal VoIP channels, we can acquire the amount as a surplus.' Only licensed companies can operate VoIP services in Nepal, subject to tax by the state. Illegal VoIP providers earn between $8 and $12 per minute per call.

According to Nepal Telecom calculations, legal telephone operators lose around NPR 50 to 60 mn to such operators, and that Nepal Telecom has gained at least NPR 80 mn in December 2009 after the police had carried out a series of raids on illegal VoIP operators.

The situation is no better in Bangladesh. Recently the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed the authorities concerned to immediately stop illegal use of VoIP. Hasina is said to have became unhappy with the continuing illegal VoIP business and asked Post and Telecommunications Minister Raziuddin Ahmed Raju to stop it immediately.

Industry insiders say that VoIP based call termination businesses in Bangladesh have already captured over 40% of the market of all incoming and outgoing international calls, and the illegal entrepreneurs are already boasting their invincibility to regulators.

Many VoIP service providers have been advocating allowing VoIP in India, citing great potential the technology holds to bring down the international call tariff, however the authorities in India have been very jittery on this front due to the security concern. According to TRAI, over 130 million minutes of Internet telephony conversation happened in the Q1 of 2009 and there are 34 ISPs who provide net telephony service in India (legally).

heenaj@cybermedia.co.in