Draft of telecom law finalised: Minister

The draft of the amended Telecommunication Law-2001 has been
finalised with a provision to realise a maximum of Tk 300 crore in
fine for setting up illegal voice over internet protocol. The
amendment of the existing law is required to make it updated and make
the process of foreign investment in the telecommunication easier,
Post and Telec-ommunication Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju told the
news agency yesterday. He said they have proposed to amend some
clauses of the law keeping most of the law intact. The minister also
said they would give more licences of international gateway (IGW) and
interconnection exchange (ICX) to discourage VoIP. "The tariff of
the incoming and outgoing rate of the international calls will be
reshuffled phase by phase," he said. "The illegal VoIP business will
be discouraged, if we are able to increase the number of licences of
legal VoIP and rearrange the tariff," the minister said. In the final
draft, the amount of fine for illegal VOIP is proposed to be reduced
in line with the request of privet operators. According to the
draft, anyone can appeal against the allegation of setting up illegal
VoIP, the minister said.