Bharti Telenet Ltd., Bhopal-CommWorks 8210 UMS for Telco Voice/Fax Mail and Migration to Enhanced IP Services |
At the recent ITU World Policy Forum on IP Telephony, Yoshio Utsumi, ITU
secretary-general, raised three key questions. Why do we need a new network to
carry telephone calls when we already have one — the public switched telephone
network (PSTN) — which does the job very well indeed? What does IP Telephony
mean for developing countries? Why the big fuss over a new technology, which
provides what is essentially an old service? These questions concern the whole
world. But let us for the moment forget the world and confine them to India.
Utsumi himself had the answers. He underlined that IP-based networks
represent a significant new opportunity for ITU members and are already an
important part of the emerging new market environment in terms of volume of
traffic carried and level of investment committed. "From a technical
perspective, IP-based networks hold the promise of providing multimedia
telecommunication services and new applications, merging voice and data. From an
economic perspective, the use of IP-based networks promises to reduce prices for
consumers, and the costs of market entry for operators, especially for
long-distance and international calls," he added.
Simply put, this is the gist of what IP telephony would mean to a developing
country like India. However, unlike in countries like US or China where IP
Telephony evolved liberally, or otherwise, over a period of time, a lot of
groundwork would be needed in India, both by the government and the service
providers, before a switch over to packet-based telephony. A migration would
also mean a disruption of the existing telecommunication model. The silver
lining, nonetheless, is that India has before it, numerous IP telephony models
from different countries to take lessons from.
Why does India need IP Telephony?
Drop the word IP telephony and the first thing that comes to mind is cheaper
voice calls. Very few of us realize that IP telephony is not just about
substantial reduction in long distance international or domestic voice call
costs, it is also about choice and availability of new services. Besides, IP
telephony, with low entrance cost for operators, could also encourage new
investments in the telephony business. This is something that the country
desperately needs, to tide over its notoriously low telephone penetration
levels.
"A developing country like ours definitely requires cost effective
communication. The first application I could think of is mass communication
booths for VoIP calls & Internet access. Closer home, Thailand has done just
that," says Himanshu Goel of 3Com India Limited. "Aren’t we ready
for this since most of us still think ten times before making a long distance
call?" he asks.
Then it is also about the availability of services and their easy
accessibility by a larger number of people. In a country with an installed base
of just 5 million PCs, would it not be prudent to allow people to send or
receive any type of message without owning a PC?
"With the availability of technology to provision voice and data
networks in a single infrastructure, developed and developing countries have
clearly seen the business advantages of using the technology which benefits its
people. And what benefits people cannot be a wrong decision," asserts SV
Ramana, country manager, technical sales, Cisco India
Wholesale Phone to Phone Voice Services
Least Call Routing
Just as many telecommunication carriers employ IP telephony in their
backbone networks, several operators sell IP capacity (often combined with
termination services) as a least-cost routing solution for international calls.
Given the increasing prevalence of this type of transmission, many callers are
probably already making IP telephony calls without knowing it. Pulver.com’s
"Minutes Exchange" acts as a "market maker" between parties
originating and terminating IP minutes.
Call Termination
Hundreds of small companies, many related to established ISPs, offer
international call termination in almost every country in the world (including
many where IP Telephony is prohibited). Some of these firms are full-service
clearinghouses and offer billing services as well. The barriers to entry are low
and so are the prices. See, for instance, the list of termination rates around
the world available on the IPxStream web site, or that of Arbinet-TheXchange,
where the prices quoted are often below the settlement rates, which would
otherwise apply. IP telephony minutes are being terminated on the PSTN just
about anywhere the Internet reaches.
Source: ITU