Government’s monopoly over the international telephony is finally breathing its last in Bangladesh. Bangla Trac, Mir Telecom and Novotel are commencing their international gateway services today. The government had asked the telecoms regulator way back in 2003 to liberalize the international gateway. But the illegal call bypassing outfits had succeeded to block that initiative. The bypassing ventures kept on sprouting nationwide until the military-backed government’s crackdown began in 2007. Immediately a policy was also enacted that disqualifies all telecoms providers (except the state-owned BTCL), foreign investors and expatriate Bangladeshis in the international gateway licensing process. Finally the three companies have been granted the license to kill the ill-motive of state-owned monopoly. Read more.