Call-Back Firms Queer Vsnls Pitch

Many new telecom providers are offering $0.50 per minute as call rate to the US, even though Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has declared call-back services illegal.

VSNL had entered into a major row with the US early this year over call back services of Sprint, one of the four recognised US telecom operators with whom VSNL has a carrier agreement. Sprint was then offering India-US calls at $ 1.20 per minute against the India-US VSNL rate of $ 2.40 a minute. But now, operators like Nighthawk Telecom, Primecall, New World and Justice Technology are offering rates between $ 0.80 and $ 0.50 a minute.

 

These carriers advertise regularly on the Internet. Ironically, VSNL control the India gateway of the Internet and has the means to build firewalls (black out) certain home pages.

VSNL has carrier agreements with AT&T, MCI, Sprint and Star Track of the US. Its differences with Sprint was settled after India declared call-back as illegal and threatened to stop payments for rate settlements. The official rate between the US and India is still half that of the India-US rate.

VSNL sources said the recognised service providers do not indulge in call-back as the official India-US traffic volume is heavily loaded against India. The US-India calls are seven times more than in the reverse direction.

These operators entertain calls from India and make the receiver in the US call-back the local number.

The billing is either made to the US number or the Indian number as desired. In the latter, the call from India is at the VSNL rate while a separate bill is sent for the longer duration US-India call. To ensure bill payment, the Indian customer is asked to become a member of the service after paying an upfront fee to an Indian contact.

Sources said those with internationally acceptable credit cards are billed directly while others have tied up with STD-ISD providers in India on a membership basis.