Why VOIP is illegal?

The government is pounding upon the telecom operators who purportedly are using their internet facilities for international telephone call terminations. The operators are being heavily fined, their equipments worth crore of takas are being confiscated and some of them are banned for life to continue such operations.

As a former BT & T person, I still do not understand why Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) should be illegal in the first place? VOIP is transmitting speech signal through the internet band width. The operators pay rent for it. They also pay telephone line rent and call charges.

In early 1980s, BT & T used to charge an additional amount of Tk 10,000 for each Fax machine. The BT & T introduced this charge only as a source of extra income. The BT &T is loosing revenue because of its own fault. It is like punishing a motor bike rider by a bullock cart driver as the later cannot catch up with the former. It is simply stupidity. I call for a national debate and let the government defend itself to prove if their action on VOIP is right.