Thirty-nine foreign nationals were arrested in Bangladesh recently with a huge quantity of illegal VoIP equipment, according to the director of the country's Anti-crime elite force (RAB)'s media wing.
Though VoIP is not illegal in Bangladesh, it is illegal to transmit the calls bypassing the proper channel as it deprives the government of revenue, said an official of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). News reports are saying that phone companies in Bangladesh offering international calls — including through VoIP services — must obtain a license from the nation’s telecommunication regulator.
According to officials, the detained individuals had been using the latest technologies and methods. Earlier, they had been using the mobile phone networks, but had recently switched to PSTN to dodge law enforcement.
Sources say state-owned BTRC connections were being used for the termination of inbound international calls.
Here in the U.S., we may take for granted how easily VoIP can be acquired. The competition field is littered with service providers, all with different pricing plans and features that cater to large enterprises down to residential. On the service provider side, VoIP can be a lucrative business.
VoIP service providers can make business one of three ways; by directly providing services to corporations and other large companies, by becoming VoIP wholesale carriers and lastly, by becoming VoIP resellers.
VoIP as a business is a shared "deck of cards,” tossed up in the telecom whirlwind, with tremendous chances for individuals and small organizations to faucet into massive, recurring, month-to-month income streams.
From a business perspective, there’s no need to invest tens of millions of dollars in wholesale VoIP to join in on the business competition. Many telecom companies offer a complete, turnkey VoIP business service and equipment. Now you can start wholesale VoIP business with virtually no investment and yet reap great dividends.
Of course, with telecom regulations varying from country to country, it’s no wonder, then, that in Bangladesh, a number of individuals tried to reap the benefits of selling a service that is attractive and useful to the people they marketed to.
The finer details behind the racket have yet to be revealed, but given VoIP’s global popularity as a competitive business, one can only come to the conclusion that those who were arrested were simply trying to rake in the dough despite the phony setup.
“The arrest of so many foreigners at once is the highest ever, while the seizure of VoIP equipment was also the largest ever,” said officials from RAB.
Edited by Alisen Downey