By Sharla Sikes

Amid allegations of illegal international call termination, VoIP provider Grameenphone will launch an audit to pinpoint what’s exactly going on.

Norwegian telecom group Telenor asked Grameenphone to conduct the audit after the Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission filed a case claiming 10 officials were involved in illegal international call termination. Two of the officials are former CEOs of Grameenphone.

“Actions like the ones alleged in the BTRC filing are definetely not in line with Telenor’s guidelines and codes of conduct,” Esben Tuman, communications director of Telenor Asia, told The Daily Star. “In order to look into this matter in a thorough manner, Telenor brought this topic to Grameenphone’s Board of Directors in December 2007, and the Board decided to initiate an independent external audit.”

The case also names AccessTel, a local ISP, and Malaysia-based international call carrier DiGi Telecommunications. Tuman denies any connection between Telenor, Digi Telecommunication and Grameenphone in the case.

The case claims that Grameenphone provided VoIP equipment to AccessTel for the alleged illegal business. Law enforcement found equipment connecting Grameenphone with AccessTel. DiGi is named due to its agreement to terminate Grameenphone’s calls.
“The case is still under investigation, and we will have to see the outcome of the Bangladeshi authorities’ investigation as well as the external audit initiated by Telenor and Grameenphone’s board of directors before planning and implementing our actions,” the Telenor statement said.
Former CEOs Eric Aas and Ola Ree were named in the case, and also former officials Technical Director Thor Randhaug, Chief Technical Officer Yogesh Sanjeev Malik, and Sales and Marketing Director Mehboob Chowdhury, and incumbents Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Director Khalid Hasan, Chief Technical Officer Md Shafiqul Islam, Sales and Marketing Director Kafil HS Muyeed, Chief Financial Officer Md Aril Al Islam and Head of Revenue Assurance Espen Wiig Warendroph.

A BTRC task force composed of regulatory and law-enforcing officials along with technical experts found in the companies’ internal records and e-mails “that GP’s expatriate and local high officials were involved in unscrupulous VoIP operations. It also found that Malaysian mobile phone provider DiGi had been GP’s overseas partner in the unlawful VoIP venture.”

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