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| Monopoly body to hear plea today on internet telephony |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Feb 09, 2010, 01:03 IST |
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The Competition Commission of India (CCI) will tomorrow hear a plea by the Internet Service Providers Association of India (Ispai) on allowing the use of internet telephony.
The association moved the competition panel after a seven-month delay in a response from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to the recommendation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) that internet service providers, or ISPs, should be allowed to use telephone lines to make internet telephony calls.
Ispai had alleged in a petition that the government’s delay in opening up internet telephony is “favouring mobile operators and preventing fair competition”.
The government currently does not permit internet telephony calls to terminate on phone lines. Internet telephony services from the likes of Google, Skype, Yahoo, and MSN are considered illegal in the country.
For over a year, the country’s 75-80 ISPs have been demanding that internet telephony be opened up to the masses that will result in cheaper calls and increased penetration. “We have been advocating in favour of internet telephony, which is meant for rural India and common citizens. Voice is an accepted medium of communication between illiterate. Hence, internet telephony can be a cheap solution on broadband which will become a killer application and will also results in increasing penetration of broadband in rural areas,” noted Ispai president Rajesh Chharia.
If internet helps the people of India to make cheaper phone calls, it will emerge as the common man’s need, he added.
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