Govt may legalise internet telephony, says Sikdar
Agencies/New Delhi - Feb.11,2000
The Union government is considering legalising internet telephony since it was felt that ``sooner or later, it has to be legalised,' minister of state for communications Tapan Sikdar said on Thursday.
"Our ministry is fully aware of the pros and cons and the issue is being currently examined by the group on telecom and convergence," Mr Sikdar told the `third telecom summit' organised by the CII and MAIT here.
"Once we have its recommendations, we will act further on it," he added.
Internet telephony allows computer users with internet connection to talk to people with same facility anywhere in the world without incurring any additional expenditure.
However, he conceded that internet telephony was destined to eat into the profitability of department of telecom services' long distance telephony. "Wether we legalise it or not, there will be many an unscrupulous operator to use the system and cheat the exchequer," he added.
He said e-commerce is another area which has a huge potential and department of telecom is addressing the issue of connectivity in a serious manner to capilatise on the sector.
Mr Sikdar also suggested a national level corporation, on the lines of the Rural Electification Corporation, to finance rural and remote telephony. ``The government is busy exploring ways to continue to boost telephone penetration particularly long distance to unserved and to expand computer and internet connectivity.'
From the present 2.5 per cent telephone penetration, the government aims to reach 15 per cent by 2010. In case of rural areas, the teledensity would be raised to four by 2010 from the current 0.4.
Speaking at the summit, Jorma Ollila, chairman and CEO of Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone company, said there would be one billion mobile phone users in the world by 2002, up from 480 million last month. He predicted that the number of mobile phone handsets connected to the internet would be more than those connected to personal computers by 2003. "The future of technology will not be PC-centric, but will be mobile phone-centric," he added.
Mr Yoshio Utsumi, secretaty general of the International Telecommunication Union, said this global body would become a forum for regulators and policy makers. He lauded the efforts being taken by India in speeding up reforms in the telecom sector and spreading information technology in this part of the world. |
