Illegal phone exchanges in Kerala posing risk to nationwide safety, finds probe

Express News Service

KOCHI:  Illegal phone exchanges thriving within the state are posing critical safety threats moreover inflicting losses that run into crores to the federal government, police stated. These exchanges use overseas servers making it unattainable to trace the customers and that makes it the favorite possibility for rackets.

The police made the findings throughout a probe into the actions of a Kozhikode-based racket that operated eight unlawful phone exchanges final yr. With the probe revealing the position of an organised pan-India community behind the institution of unlawful exchanges in Kozhikode, the state police have determined handy over the case to National Investigation Agency (NIA). 

According to the police, these unlawful exchanges dealt with voluminous calls at a time when many apps like Botim, Zoom and Totok — that even perform in Middle East nations — can be found totally free of value.

“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,” stated a senior intelligence officer.

Kozhikode City Crime Branch Assistant Commissioner Anil Sreenivasan stated the probe into the functioning of unlawful exchanges in Kozhikode revealed that the accused had been utilizing a overseas server bought by an organization arrange 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 common supervisor G Muralidharan stated the VoIP facility is more and more used to bypass the conventional worldwide name supply system and it triggered losses to the tune of crores of rupees to the federal 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 stated.  He added that the rackets convert a global name from a cellular to VoIP after which course of it by a SIM field which once more converts the VoIP to an area name.

“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 stated.

Muralidharan stated these unlawful exchanges pose a risk to the telecom sector, depriving the official operators of their fare share within the telecom site visitors. “This results in a huge tax loss to the government,” he stated.

FTI Consulting Strategic Communications observe managing director Prasanto Okay Roy stated unlawful exchanges settle for native calls and route them over the web, thus bypassing the worldwide gateway of telecom corporations. 

“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 stated. “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 stated.

KOCHI:  Illegal phone exchanges thriving within the state are posing critical safety threats moreover inflicting losses that run into crores to the federal government, police stated. These exchanges use overseas servers making it unattainable to trace the customers and that makes it the favorite possibility for rackets.

The police made the findings throughout a probe into the actions of a Kozhikode-based racket that operated eight unlawful phone exchanges final yr. With the probe revealing the position of an organised pan-India community behind the institution of unlawful exchanges in Kozhikode, the state police have determined handy over the case to National Investigation Agency (NIA). 

According to the police, these unlawful exchanges dealt with voluminous calls at a time when many apps like Botim, Zoom and Totok — that even perform in Middle East nations — can be found totally free of value.

“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,” stated a senior intelligence officer.

Kozhikode City Crime Branch Assistant Commissioner Anil Sreenivasan stated the probe into the functioning of unlawful exchanges in Kozhikode revealed that the accused had been utilizing a overseas server bought by an organization arrange 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 common supervisor G Muralidharan stated the VoIP facility is more and more used to bypass the conventional worldwide name supply system and it triggered losses to the tune of crores of rupees to the federal 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 stated.  He added that the rackets convert a global name from a cellular to VoIP after which course of it by a SIM field which once more converts the VoIP to an area name.

“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 stated.

Muralidharan stated these unlawful exchanges pose a risk to the telecom sector, depriving the official operators of their fare share within the telecom site visitors. “This results in a huge tax loss to the government,” he stated.

FTI Consulting Strategic Communications observe managing director Prasanto Okay Roy stated unlawful exchanges settle for native calls and route them over the web, thus bypassing the worldwide gateway of telecom corporations. 

“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 stated. “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 stated.