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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (2676)	9/5/1998 11:40:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 12475

India Roadblocking Technology soundingboardmag.com By Uday Lal L.Pai, Sounding Board contributor India's state-controlled telecom monopolies are dead-set against Internet telephony, although current attempts to block the low-cost telephone technology don't have teeth. The Department of Telecom (DoT) is trying to stall attempts to introduce Internet telephony in India. India's monopoly Internet service provider (ISP), the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), the international arm of DoT, has banned providers of such schemes from using its lines; and considering that all overseas calls go through VSNL, the chances of anyone offering these services is no better than nil. VSNL has warned its subscribers of using Internet telephony only at the risk of losing their accounts. The reason is simple. The prospect of using the Internet to make international calls is attractive. Instead of paying $ 2.25 per minute for a call to the United States, it will cost nothing or at the most a few rupees a minute. That's great news for the consuming public, but just the opposite for the large telecom companies. Since VSNL also is the gateway for international telephony in India, it could find itself deprived of a substantial chunk of revenue as a result of Internet protocol (IP) telephony. Fearing Internet telephony might eat away its lucrative international or the intercircle revenues, VSNL issued e-mails in early January this year warning against the use of the Internet connection for telephony or fax applications. The Internet policy announced recently by the government states that the potential private ISPs would not be allowed to provide Internet telephony services, but does not explicitly state that it is illegal. All those interested in becoming private ISPs had to sign an agreement with DoT promising that they would not allow their customers to use the 'Net for telephony. Telecom rules are a bit of a joke in India, however. The Indian Telegraph Act (ITA), drafted in 1885 by the British, is still governing telecom policy issues. The ITA is a mere two-page document that focuses on telecom and telegraph services provided during the colonial period. None of the governments in power since then have chosen to introduce a new policy. So, of course, nowhere does ITA say that use of Internet telephony is illegal. And even if the VSNL files a case against those providing such services, there is no way it can prove that Internet telephony was being provided. This is because VSNL's Gateway Access for Internet Services (GAIS), the node that routes Internet traffic, cannot differentiate between voice and data. The voice is converted in data form while going through the GAIS. So VSNL has decided to dissuade users from making international calls through the connections. In order to curb Internet telephony, it is installing a "proxy server" between the gateway and the user which would make online and real-time telephonic communications practically impossible and very time-consuming. These servers, however, would not prove to be so time-consuming while accessing data and international websites. VSNL plans to complete the installation of these proxy servers shortly.