Dhaka: Observing that illegal VoIP business and cyber crimes have emerged as challenges for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), its newly appointed chairman Shahjahan Mahmood has said that his commission has taken up the challenges and will wipe out the menaces.

‘Improved services as well as surveillance against cyber crimes are what the BTRC is vying through the implementation of a set of rigorous, innovative initiatives very soon,’ he told UNB.

The BTRC will put more emphasis on ensuring the best services to mobile phone users while dealing with illegal VoIP business and cyber crimes, he said.

Shahjahan Mahmood said the BTRC hopes to offer the best services to the users at the cheapest rate in consultation with private operators in the sector.

To win the challenges, the BTRC will introduce ‘Internet safety solution’ system and recruit a team which will work to root out cyber crimes, said the BTRC Chairman.

Besides, the telecommunication regulatory body will communicate with the highest level of the government to fix the unsettled financial issues with a view to collecting the revenue in arrears.

The commission will also carry out drives to remove illegal, counterfeit and low-quality mobile phone sets from the market, he said adding that his commission will ban the import of mobile phone sets and wireless devices without permission in a bid to block revenue evasion.

The new BTRC boss has also pledged to take stern action against mobile phone operators for ‘harassing’ users through call drop and by forcing them to register several packages.

He expressed the hope to introduce 4G (Fourth Generation) internet service within 2016.

The government is going to install Mobile Number Portability (MNP) system aiming to increase competition among the mobile phone operators to get better services, Dr Shahjahan added.

The government has launched a pilot project for the re-registration of the subscriber identification module (SIM) cards following the biometric method and the project has started in a full swing on 16 December and will end on April, 2016.

Asked about the enactment of a particular policy for telecommunication sector, the chairman said the process of making a modern policy is underway.

Shahjahan also expressed his optimism to earn a lot of currencies through the country’s first-ever satellite project Bangabandhu-1.

The government, meanwhile, inked a deal involving Tk 1951.75 crore with French company Thales Alenia Space to procure equipment for installing Bangabandhu-1 by December 2017.

Once installed, Shajahan said, the whole expenses will get recovered within 6-7 years through the renting of the unused space of the satellite to neighbouring countries.

The satellite will minimise the digital divide as it will take broadcast and telecoms services to the remotest rural areas and enable the government to introduce profitable and promising services, he added.

Shahjahan Mahmood joined the BTRC as its Chairman on 26 October replacing Sunil Kanti Bose.