NEW DELHI: The complete opening of Internet telephony, as recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) a few days ago, will not only lead to steep fall in all type of call charges, be it local, national or international, but also help in increasing broadband penetration, an area where India lags behind.
Industry analysts say person using Internet telephony to make calls would see his call charges falling by as much as 50-60 per cent compared to a normal telephone call today. This will benefit an ordinary home user as well as corporates and other industries alike. Internet telephony would help telecom penetration in rural India.
Till now Internet telephony was allowed only between personal computers or to mobile or landlines abroad. But complete Internet telephony would mean that calls can also be made to landlines and mobiles in India as well as abroad. To start using Internet telephony, just an adapter is needed that converts a regular landline with broadband connection to a net phone.
“By spending just Rs. 1,000-Rs. 1500 for an adapter, a PC would be converted into a phone. Calls made through Internet would be cheap because of the low carrier cost in Internet Protocol (IP) switching against traditional circuit switching. Similarly, infrastructure requirement needed for IP switching is also low, making Internet telephony more economical,” said Rajesh Chharia, President, Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI).
According to Mr. Chharia, Internet telephony could see local call charges going down from Re. 1 a minute to just 60 paise and that of STD from say around Re. 1-Rs. 2 to 50-80 paise. “However, the greatest beneficiaries would be those making international calls as call rates could see steep fall. For instance, those paying around Rs. 10 for an ISD call would have to pay just Rs.3-Rs.5,” he added.
And with more advanced telecom technologies all set to be introduced in India, Internet telephony would help in social and economic development of the nation. Net telephony services would be used through any device that can access the Internet. Apart from a PC with a headset, it could be a Web-enabled mobile phone such as smart phones or one with GPRS or 3G connectivity.
Referring to objections by telecom operators, particularly mobile service providers, Mr. Chharia said it was a misconception that the new regulation gave undue advantage to Internet service providers (ISPs) and could hamper growth of telecom operators.
“Today, about 70 per cent of ISPs revenue goes to these telecom operators for using their infrastructure. Low call rates due to Internet telephony would only increase volumes of calls thus benefiting telecom companies also," Mr. Chharia added.
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