Us May Declare Callback Services To India Illegal

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the US telecom and electronic media regulator, is studying a request by the department of telecommunications (DoT) to declare callback services to India as illegal. DoT officials expect a favourable response from the US regulator.

Callback services take advantage of low international telephone tariffs and reverse a call originating from a high call-tariff country to a call from a low tariff one. For billing purposes, after reversal the call gets treated as a call from the low tariff country to the high tariff one, thereby translating into a lower bill.

With its high international call tariffs, India has been a target of callback operators offering services from the US. According to Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) estimates, more than 10 per cent of its outgoing traffic (around 100 million minutes) gets siphoned off by callback operators resulting in lower revenues.

The US government has declared callback services legal in its country, but has left a provisio by which if a country officially appeal against the offer of such services, it will be banned. Last year, VSNL had written to the FCC requesting a ban on callback services to India, but the US regulator turned down the request saying it was not from the official telecom administration of the country.

Following this, DoT wrote to the FCC, quoting sections of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, that which vest the right to provide international telephony services solely with the government or its licensee, in this case VSNL.

The FCC has banned callback service to some 15 countries in the past, but such services continue to be offered through other countries.

Asia Pacific Telecommunication Indicators, a report on telecommunications in the region release by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) earlier this week, estimates call-turnaround traffic to be slightly more than the total outgoing traffic from India. Call turnaround consists of calls using calling cards, country-direct (like the AT&T Namaskar Seva service) and callback services.