Internet telephony the next big thing in India
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Telecom regulator TRAI on Monday allowed ISPs to offer unrestricted internet telephony services. it also recommended that calls made over the Internet be allowed to be received on traditional telephones rather than just computers, a move that would increase competition in the fast growing telecom market across the country.
As per the TRAI recommendations, the STD service providers would be connected to ISPs
through public internet for the purpose and the two service providers would have mutual agreement for the same. Currently, a voice call can travel between two computers but not from a mobile or a fixed phone. This is expected to open huge channels of revenues for Internet Service Providers (ISPs).However, existing players have expressed concern over the TRAI’s recommendations. T V Ramachandran, Director-General, COAI, stated that TRAI recommendations are against the very basic principle of level playing field since ISPs have been allowed to offer Net telephony at no additional cost.
“The existing operators have obtained access licence after paying a huge entry fee which is as high as Rs 1,650 crore for all India. Against this backdrop, it is very
unfair to allow unfettered access to ISPs. Hence, in order to maintain the level playing field, it is imperative that ISPs should be required to migrate to UASL licence and should be subject to the same entry fee,” COAI said.The Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), a technical arm of Department of Telecom, will work out the number plan for the ISPs to enable them to offer telephone services.
Under the regulator's plan, international call rates via the Internet could drop to one-two rupees (two-five cents) a minute from the average seven, while national long-distance rates could fall to less than half a rupee.
Local calls could be virtually free. But experts say it would take a long time for broadband subscribers to pose a threat to fixed-line and mobile licence holders, given India's low Internet penetration.
India has just 4.38 million broadband subscribers, while there are 287 million mobile users and 38.9 million landline subscribers.
Download TRAI’s recommendation here
posted by Rishil Babu @ 7:07 AM,
