Is unrestricted Net telephony round the corner?
By siliconindia   |   Saturday, 21 June 2008, 16:57 IST
Printer Print Email Email
New Delhi: Indian telephone customers may soon be able to make cheaper telephone calls within the country using the Internet infrastructure. Global IT and telecom majors including Google, Microsoft, BT and AT&T are pushing for unrestricted Internet telephony in India. Those companies have written to the telecom regulator to this effect. As of now, the Internet service providers are allowed to offer only PC-to-PC calls within the country. Though unified access providers have been permitted to offer unrestricted Internet telephony, no operator has so far launched the service. "It is almost two and half years since providers were permitted to offer the service on January 1, 2006, but not yet a single access provider has begun offering Internet telephony with interconnection to PSTN within India despite numerous reports about its huge demand. Obviously, this is a classic scenario of market failure and a fitting case for the regulator to intervene by catalyzing and sustaining effective competition," Microsoft said in its communication to TRAI. Supporting the move to open up Internet telephony to Internet operators, Google said "TRAI notes that such a shift would drive usage of Internet telephony itself, would lower national long distance costs, and � importantly � would increase the perceived utility and use of broadband Internet services. It is also important to note that the collective effect of these changes will be significant; indeed, they will yield a society that is more interconnected, productive, and innovative � which is of course a desirable outcome for all." The U.S. telecom major AT&T said that a restricted regime was proving to be an impediment to business. AT&T, in response to TRAI's consultation paper said, "AT&T hears frequently from its multinational business customers that they find the barriers to use of Internet telephony in India very unusual and complex, and an impediment to conducting business."

siliconindia