Cellular operators vs NASSCOM

what we are witnessing in India is the ultimate technological supremacy and desire to be compact and universal. Laptop or any internet gadget can be telephone if telephone can be internet enabled, why not another medium house telephony? Welcome to the future 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News_by_Industry/Telcos_oppose_TRAI_rules/articleshow/3378002.cms

NEW DELHI: Cellular operators on Monday fiercely opposed telecom regulator TRAI's recommendation to allow internet service providers to offer unrestricted internet telephony services, saying it would be against the basic principle of level-playing field. 

The GSM operators lobby COAI Director General T V Ramachandran demanded that there should be level playing field and that telecom regulator TRAI's recommendations are against the very basic principle of level-playing field since they allow unrestricted internet telephony to ISPs at no additional cost. 

The existing UASL/BSO/CMTS operators have obtained access licence after paying a huge entry fee which is as high as Rs 1,650 crore for all India. 

In February, access licences have been issued by the Department of Telecom upon payment of Rs 1,650 crore. Many of the new applicants are still awaiting allotment of spectrum to start the service. Against this backdrop, it is very unfair to allow unfettered access to ISPs. 

COAI has also claimed that ISPs should be required to migrate to UASL license. 

However, welcoming TRAI's suggestion Internet Service Providers Association of India President Rajesh Chharia said the telecom operators should not treat ISPs as competition. 

"We acts as resellers of the services...the move is likely to lower the tariffs by 50 per cent which will encourage more people to use the service." 

IT industry body NASSCOM also welcomed the move and said that the step is likely to benefit the country's BPO sector.

Further Money control says

By Sumit Chaturvedi and Sandeep Gurumurthi, CNBC-TV18

 http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/economy/trai-issues-recommendationsinternet-telephony/22/02/352211

You could soon dial a mobile phone number from your personal computer. A move that internet service providers claim will sharply bring down long distance tariffs but given the stiff opposition from existing telcos will internet telephony be a reality? PC to Mobile and PC to landline calls could soon become a reality. 

 

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued recommendations on Internet telephony. It has suggested lifting the curbs on Internet telephony and has recommended Internet service providers (ISPs) in order to provide unrestricted Internet telephony. Further, it has recommended allowing NLD Operators to connect to ISPs through public Internet. TRAI has recommended NLD and ISPs to have a mutual agreement for facilitating unrestricted telephony.

 

Currently only PC to PC calls are allowed but the regulator has pitched for unrestricted internet telephony. The Impact of this will be that the ISPs will compete with long distance carriers and long distance tariffs could fall. It's a move that will inject fresh competition into the Long Distance Telephony space and ISP's claim consumers could call long distane for a half of the current cost. 

 

Rajesh Charia, President, ISPAI said, " We expect tariffs to fall by upto 50% and welcome this move." The regulator has also allowed long distance operators to connect to ISP's through internet. But existing mobile phone operators have stronly opposed the regulator's move to lift curbs on internet telephony. TV Ramchandran, Director General, COAI said, "There has to be level playing field and can't pay a fraction of fees we pay as licence fees and then seek to compete with us." The Telcos are unlikely to give up just yet. They are likley to lobby hard with the DoT which is expected to take a final call on these recommendations over the next two to three months.