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Kripa Raman

Mumbai , July 8

INDIA is fast on its way towards packet-based telecommunication networking, with almost every major telecom operator now contracting for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) equipment.

And, following the operators would be a whole lot of others ranging from small ISP operators to large corporates.

VoIP-based equipment is more compact than the traditional switches and equipment, offers savings in capital expenditure, and provides readiness for whenever the regulations will allow full and true convergence, said Mr Yogesh Bijlani, Country Manager, Veraz Networks.

Veraz is a small California-based IP solutions vendor that beat top telecom equipment global majors to win a $7-million (over Rs 31 crore) contract from Reliance Infocomm for deploying 60,000 VoIP ports globally for the latter's international long-distance operations.

"There are bids from nearly every big operator in India for VoIP," said Mr Amit Chawla, Global Vice-President, Marketing, Veraz, who was in the city recently to stitch up the Reliance Infocomm deal. According to him, the deployment over the next year by Indian operators would be in the region of $50 million (Rs 225 crore).

Going by what VoIP solution vendors in general say, BSNL has floated a giant tender for VoIP deployment of 2,00,000 ports; VSNL is contracting for 50,000 ports; large orders from others, such as MTNL, are also in the pipeline.

"Even the smallest ISP is looking at VoIP," said Mr Ronojoy Punja, Vice-President, (Marketing) Cisco Systems India. Whether the customer is a DSL operator, metro Ethernet or other ISP operator, if they have an IP overlay, they can provide voice as an additional service, he said.

An even bigger potential market exists in enterprises, says Mr Punja. Typically they are large banks or corporates with large supplier-dealer networks who want VoIP-based networks for their internal or closed user group use; or BPOs who are looking to create a meshed network for their business with the help of VoIP equipment.

The existence of more IP-based networks could also make the detection of illegal voice traffic more difficult, according to some officials with the operators who did not want to be named.

Currently, voice cannot be carried from an IP network to a public telephone network. The corporate market will explode once this is allowed.

Because voice cannot be carried from an IP network to a public telephone network, having two infrastructure systems makes it a must for corporates, says Mr Punja. Also, their current networks may not yet be fully depreciated. Corporates' objective is to have a single infrastructure that is logically separated for Internet telephony and public telephony and which can allow for true convergence (anywhere-to-anywhere calls) later.

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