As corruption crept into the project in different phases and two chairmen of Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board were 'removed', the management of the project should be given to a board to avoid any mismanagement in selling its bandwidth, they said.

The BTTB should be involved only in developing infrastructure and separate companies like Teletalk should be formed to run any type of state-run business for ensuring transparency, they mentioned.

The ISP association leaders also blamed the government for encouraging illegal VoIP business, as it is yet to implement the cabinet decision for legalising the VoIP.

The government first decided to legalise VoIP in June 2002 and a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia cleared the decision on November 10, 2003.

"A separate board should be formed so that the potential of submarine cable can be utilised properly. The board will be responsible for fixing the price of bandwidth and its distribution," Md Akhtaruzzaman Manju, president of the ISP Association of Bangladesh, told a press briefing at the National Press Club in Dhaka.

Blaming BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) for giving too many licences for ISPs, Manju said a handful of these companies are only offering internet services but many of them are involved in illegal call termination business.

Demanding immediate opening up the VoIP, SM Iqbal, executive committee member, said it will help grow call centre, tele-medicine and other types of IT-related business.

The illegal VoIP traders do not need to pay any sort of revenue to the government and the role of BTRC is also questionable, he mentioned.

Iqbal said it has become very difficult for the ISPs to survive due to continuous power outages and sharp depreciation of taka against dollars.

The ISP association will be forced to launch agitation if its demands are not met immediately. Stopping internet service apart, the service providers will observe sit-in and send emails across the world highlighting mismanagement in the telecommunication sector, the leaders warned.