TRAI looks at future of Internet telephony - Plans to remove restrictions

By Harsha Pramod @ Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:39 AM

Section - Telecoms/Broadband

The Telephone Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a consultation paper on the “Issues Related to Internet Telephony”. The paper outlines the relaxation of existing regulatory restrictions on Internet telephony licensing.

The consultation paper considers various issues related to provision of Internet telephony in India, together with topics such as authorization for internet service providers (ISPs) to enable Internet phone users to call conventional phone subscribers within the country. ISPs cannot currently offer internet telephony to connect to landlines or mobiles in India.

TRAI has to deal with the challenge posed by the growing popularity of Internet telephony and the availability of superior network facilities. Continuing to ban such services will deny the advantages of technology to the general public, but the report also highlights that allowing these services will inevitably bring up issues related to uneven playing fields caused by different regulatory rates. X

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