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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 2 With the Department of Telecom showing no signs of allowing unrestricted Internet telephony, the Internet Service Providers have filed a petition with the Competition Commission of India seeking a direction to the Government on this issue.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had recommended opening up the sector for ISPs.

The ISPs have alleged that the DoT was using its dominant position to block out ISPs from a sector that will not only bring additional revenues to them, but also enable cheaper long-distance calls to consumers.

“The Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) is compelled to knock at the door of the Competition Commission of India. We have been advocating for a long time in favour of Internet telephony as it will bring the cost of telecom services lower,” said Mr Rajesh Chharia, President of the association. The CCI is yet to accept the petition.

The ISPs have been demanding permission to offer the service for over two years, but the DoT has been blocking it on the ground that it wanted to bring parity between unified access licence holders that pay between 6 and 10 per cent of their income as licence fee and ISPs that pay 6 per cent.

The DoT reckons that if unrestricted Net telephony is allowed, then it could be complementary service to the existing mobile and fixed line telephone services, in which case telecom firms could be at a disadvantage compared to an ISP.

Currently, ISPs are allowed to offer Net telephony only for international calls. PC-to-PC calls are allowed on domestic routes. Though unified operators are allowed to offer the service, no one has launched it till now. Therefore, TRAI had suggested allowing ISPs to offer unrestricted Net telephony even for domestic calls in a bid to offer more choice to consumers.

Net telephony is expected to be much cheaper than the traditional phone calls because the cost of offering the service for the operator is lower. Also, users can make or receive calls at the same tariff wherever they are as long as they are connected to the Net. Cellular users can also avail themselves of telephone services wherever they are, but have to pay hefty roaming charges.

More Stories on : ISPs | Regulatory Bodies & Rulings

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