KOCHI: Illegal telephone exchanges thriving in the state are posing serious security threats besides causing losses that run into crores to the government, police said. These exchanges use foreign servers making it impossible to track the users and that makes it the favourite option for rackets.
The police made the findings during a probe into the activities of a Kozhikode-based racket that operated eight illegal telephone exchanges last year. With the probe revealing the role of an organised pan-India network behind the establishment of illegal exchanges in Kozhikode, the state police have decided to hand over the case to National Investigation Agency (NIA).
According to the police, these illegal exchanges handled voluminous calls at a time when many apps like Botim, Zoom and Totok — that even function in Middle East countries — are available for free of cost.
"It’s surprising that illegal exchanges thrive despite the availability of cheap alternative means for communication. It’s evident that the users of such illegal exchanges want to avoid surveillance. A majority of the calls are used for illegal communication on hawala, gold smuggling and even terrorism," said a senior intelligence officer.
Kozhikode City Crime Branch Assistant Commissioner Anil Sreenivasan said the probe into the functioning of illegal exchanges in Kozhikode revealed that the accused were using a foreign server purchased by a company set up by them to route calls as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). “We have located the server and the persons who bought it,” he added.
BSNL retired principal general manager G Muralidharan said the VoIP facility is increasingly used to bypass the normal international call delivery system and it caused losses to the tune of crores of rupees to the government.
“Normally, international calls are routed through the firms having a licence to operate long-distance calls. Earlier, illegal telephone exchanges were set up by rackets since international calls were expensive and they provide services to users at a much cheaper rate. Moreover, calls routed through illegal exchanges cannot be traced, enabling rackets to use it for illegal activities,” he said. He added that the rackets convert an international call from a mobile to VoIP and then process it through a SIM box which again converts the VoIP to a local call.
“Chinese SIM boxes are available in the market. These SIM boxes can hold up to 32 SIM cards for routing international calls. When a person in Dubai makes a call to Kerala, the call is routed through a local number here, enabling the intended call recipient to get a call from a local number. This process helps the caller avoid international tariff as the illegal operator charge about only 50% of the real tariff,” he said.
Muralidharan said these illegal exchanges pose a threat to the telecom sector, depriving the legitimate operators of their fare share in the telecom traffic. “This results in a huge tax loss to the government,” he said.
FTI Consulting Strategic Communications practice managing director Prasanto K Roy said illegal exchanges accept local calls and route them over the internet, thus bypassing the international gateway of telecom companies.
“For instance, if the telco charges Rs 8-Rs 9 per minute for a call from the UAE to Kerala, illegal exchange only charges a much smaller amount,” he said. “Apart from the loss of revenue, illegal exchanges can be a security threat, masking calls that are being routed for smuggling or terror activities,” he said.
