If you are a follower of the politics of this great nation of ours, you surely have heard about the RED PHONE. If not, then I would request you to check back the news headlines of the last two weeks to soak in to the context.
Well, coming to the point; Red Phone! Red Phone is a land-lined phone that connects the government's policymaking top brasses via a secured network. But in 1950's Red Phone had a totally different meaning. In fact, the term 'Red Phone' derived from the cold war era when Washington and Moscow had a secured Teletype Link. Many citations often misinterpret the term by saying Red Phone was an actual 'PHONE' that made direct connection between Washington and Moscow. In actuality, any US presidents' calling any head of the state is a direct call itself. You might be wondering then why 'Red Phone'? The significance of Red Phone is, it was the most secured type of communication with the then USSR. Since any misinformation would lead to a full-scale nuclear war, so the hotlines between Moscow and USA were specially encrypted. To even make sure more protection, Red Phone was always kept disconnected when the US president was away from the Oval Office. Adding to that, 'Red Phone' handset's where not even of red color. It was just a Media hype after the 1960s popular TVshow 'Batman' where Commissioner Gordon contacted Batman via the red BATPHONE.
In Bangladesh, all the Red Phones are connect via a Red Exchange. Red Exchange is the special exchange dedicated for all Red Phones connected in the network. It is situated in the Sher-E-Bangla Nagar Zone and all the technical support to keep this phone up and running is provided by BTCL. But the main switching station is situated in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). To reach out other parts of the capital, there are some remote connections with other important Exchanges as well. The entire Red Exchange was updated few of years back. Most of the copper wires where replaced with optical fiber to ensure voice clarity and security. Moreover the connection capacity of the Red Exchange was increased from 500 to more than 1500 lines. Also, now most of the connections come with secured broadband now.
Since the Red Phone and Red Exchange carries high volume of sensitive traffic, thus it requires special kind of security. It is the duty of Forces Signal Intelligence Bureau [a department of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) ] to keep these connections secure from prying ears.