Now, Indian consumers will also be able to take advantages of Internet Telephony in full-fledged manner as Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday has allowed the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to permit local, STD and ISD calls from Computers to Mobile and landlines or vice versa without any restriction.
If Department of Telecommunications (DoT) approves TRAI recommendation, it would definitely be a revolution in communication field for telecom users in India who are currently using ISPs with several restrictions. At present, India is far behind from its neighbours- Bangladesh and Pakistan- where the facilities of ISP are available on a broad scale.
This move of TRAI would also boost the broadband and wireless broadband (Wimax) technology, and it may be proved boon for the rural areas of the countries where setting up ISPs booth stations and calling rates would further go down thereby making long distance tariffs affordable.
But, the telecom companies like Airtel, Vodafone and other major long distance call service providers are opposing the move of TRAI and preparing to make a lobby against DoT to not to approve this TRAI’s recommendation as its approval would hit harshly on the revenues of telecos.
After approval of TRAI’s recommendation, the rate of local call charges may likely to be nominal by maximum 15-20 paise per minute and long distance STD calls by 50 paise per minute as the telcos will have to reduce the call rates to compete with the ISPs, which tariff rates are in fractions of telcos tariffs.
The International call rates may also likely to decline by 20% across the globe, as ISPs like Skype and others provide long distance international calls at very cheap rates.
BPO companies that use ISP services will get most relief and their revenue will also boost up, if the issue of quality and security is addressed effectively.
The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), an IT-BPO industry association welcomed the move of TRAI and said “Once approved, this move will effectively remove the last barrier to internet telephony, and act as a natural corollary. It will benefit the BPO industry to a large extent,” a Nasscom statement said.
But, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has opposed this recommendation and asked the government to impose the similar entry fee of Rs. 1,651-crore on ISPs as telcos were also asked to pay the same along with a universal access service licence before starting their service on a full fledged manner.
“Many of the new applicants are still waiting for allotment of spectrum so as to enable them to start the service. 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 Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) and should be subjected to the same entry fee, license fee revenue share and other terms and conditions as are applicable to existing licensees,” COAI said in a statement.
In response, the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) has said that this move of TRAI would not lead the competition with telecom companies but enhance their revenue as ISPs are only known as the resellers of the telephony services of telecom and 70% of the revenue goes into their account as ISPs use their networks.
Commenting on the security issues, TRAI has ordered to install Lawful Interception Equipment on all machines of Internet based telephonic service.
Moreover, TRAI has also proposed to make a mutual agreement between the ISPs and National Long Distance (NLD) players over the termination of calls on one another’s networks.
Earlier, DoT had allowed the existing mobile players to use telecom licensees to offer unrestricted internet telephony as part of their licence conditions, two years ago but at that time, none of the mobile operators had used it fearing the revenue loss and when government is pondering to allow the same service to existing ISPs, these telcos are opposing the government’s move, as per sources.
In Internet telephony mechanism, consumers have two types of options- to convert a landline into a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and to use VOIP cordless or mobile phones enabled VOIP facility with video.
For using VOIP landline service, consumers will have to spend only Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 for buying a specialised device to convert a landline into a VOIP phone that also needs a broadband connection. On the other hand, for using VOIP cordless phones or mobile service, the users will have to purchase VOIP facilities enabled phone ranging Rs.8,000 to Rs. 15,000.
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