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The Time is Now!

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VoicenData Bureau
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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.

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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.

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"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

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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

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