Trai slams DoT over net telephony
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 03 March 2009, 22:47 IST
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Trai slams DoT over net telephony
New Delhi: Indians' wish to make STD calls for as low as 10-40 paise through internet telephony is likely to take long time to be a reality as the Department of Telecom (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) are still lacking clarification in terms of implementing unrestricted Internet telephony in India, reported The Economic Times. Trai said that the government is stalling the implementation of service and they strongly opposed DoT's decision to allow mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) to offer the service, without putting norms in place. Last month, Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body of the Department of Telecom (DoT) had refused to clear the proposal for unfettered Net telephony and said it had referred the matter to Trai. However, Trai officials mentioned that the government has not referred the issue of lifting curb on internet telephony. On the approval of MVNOs' entry, a top Trai official said, "The communications ministry has sought clarifications on several key policy issues regarding MVNOs from us. We do not understand how the DoT can approve the entry of MVNOs and then seek clarity on norms from us." MVNOs are companies that do not own any cellular infrastructure but buy airtime from existing operators and sell it using their own brand. Trai has been continuously talking for unrestricted internet telephony for the last one year. "Further liberalization in the internet telephony policy will bring in more competition in domestic telephony market and overall development in internet-related services. Therefore, an early decision on these recommendations will enable growth of unrestricted telephony service in the country," Trai had pointed out in a communication to DoT. Net telephony may affect private operators such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone as they now earn revenue from long distance services.

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