For Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), there is nothing to cheer about the VoIP because it has eaten up its revenues. The public telecom operator claims that it has lost 100 crore Tk in a year hitting a record five-year low because of illegal VoIP market, which is dominating the Bangladesh telecom sector.
The BTTB earns a hefty amount from the overseas calls. The state-run telecom operator says the earning from overseas calls experienced growth of 10 to 15 percent a year and incoming calls form different countries rise by 20 percent yearly. However, the illegal VoIP business chocked the growth of BTTB.
BTTB says,
Given that the market is booming, our business growth should have doubled in last five years, but instead our income is coming down every year due to illegal VoIP business.
Around six million Bangladeshis stay in abroad. They talk to their relatives 25 minutes on average a month, which totals 150 million minutes of incoming calls into Bangladesh. While, 15-20 million minutes of business calls are received as incoming calls every month.
Ironically, the BTTB receives only 60 million minutes a month. As of now, there is no encouraging factor for the state-run telecom operator as the illegal operators handle two-thirds of the international calls.
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