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News >> Technology >>
BPOs smart under telephony curbs
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 06 March 2007, 18:30 IST
The Business Process Industry Association of India (BPIAI) has criticized the governmentÂ’s decision to close down on the illegal use of Internet telephony in various call centers and business process outsourcing (BPO) units in the country. Recently Department of Telecommunications (DoT) directed Internet service providers (ISPs) t suspend provision of bandwidth to call centers and BPOs not registered with the DoT.
According to S D Saxena, the Director Finance of BSNL, the estimated loss of revenue due to ‘illegal net telephony’ is around 
1,000 crore. He added, “the illegal centers constitute only 10 percent of the overall BPO market.” This move was basically taken to end ‘illegal use’ of internet-based telephony provided by international companies such as Skype, Yahoo, Net2Phone and Vonage, by call centers.
The department of Telecommunication estimated about unlicensed service companies Skype is one such company, which provides nearly 30 million minutes of Internet telephony per month to corporates, BPOs and call centers in India. Sam Chopra, President BPIAI, has called for “free access to the most cost-effective technologies, solutions and services from providers in India and overseas.” “With the restrictive practices being implemented by the DoT, our industry will lose out to other emerging outsourcing locations such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, the Philippines and Eastern Europe,” he said in a statement. BPIAI, he added, would” be happy to work with DOT by acting as a single window for all call centers as a nodal agency for collection and initial scrutiny of registration applications, before filing” with the department.
Rajesh Chharia, President of Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) said ”We oppose the government’s definition of ‘illegal.’ Many call centers have applied to the DoT for registration but have not heard from them for almost a year. Why can’t the government go after the Internet telephony providers? The small companies are being made scapegoats.”
1,000 crore. He added, “the illegal centers constitute only 10 percent of the overall BPO market.” This move was basically taken to end ‘illegal use’ of internet-based telephony provided by international companies such as Skype, Yahoo, Net2Phone and Vonage, by call centers.
The department of Telecommunication estimated about unlicensed service companies Skype is one such company, which provides nearly 30 million minutes of Internet telephony per month to corporates, BPOs and call centers in India. Sam Chopra, President BPIAI, has called for “free access to the most cost-effective technologies, solutions and services from providers in India and overseas.” “With the restrictive practices being implemented by the DoT, our industry will lose out to other emerging outsourcing locations such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, the Philippines and Eastern Europe,” he said in a statement. BPIAI, he added, would” be happy to work with DOT by acting as a single window for all call centers as a nodal agency for collection and initial scrutiny of registration applications, before filing” with the department.
Rajesh Chharia, President of Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) said ”We oppose the government’s definition of ‘illegal.’ Many call centers have applied to the DoT for registration but have not heard from them for almost a year. Why can’t the government go after the Internet telephony providers? The small companies are being made scapegoats.”