The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has today released recommendations on what could change the future of Internet Telephony in India.

According to the recommendations released, the regulator claims that the Indian Government should remove all restrictions that have been imposed over Internet Telephony in India. Currently, ISPs are forbidden to end VOIP calls on PSTN (landline) or mobile phones here in India. However, PC to PC calls have been cleared out as exceptions. This has severely hampered the growth of such technologies and have prevented the reduction in global calling rates.

Citing the reason that telecom operators, who hold the Universal Access Services License (UASL), have failed to offer advanced value added services like Internet Telephony to the consumers, TRAI has, hence, recommended that these restrictions be lifted so as to allow a liberal environment. However, it will be long while before the Department of Telecom (DoT) actually considers these recommendations.

Back in May 2008, TRAI had put forward some guidelines on liberalization of Internet Telephony in India. Today, Mr. S.K. Gupta, the Advisor(CN) for TRAI, says in the recommendations released:

The present regulatory framework denies fruits of technological advancements to reach to common masses. Level playing field issues were being advocated against permitting these services under various licenses. Globally telecommunications are being shaped by steep growth of broadband and wireless subscribers. The regulatory environment should be dynamic, enabling, efficient and encourage competition. Hence regulatory framework for Internet telephony has to be considered in view of convergence and other similar developments taking place across the globe.

The recommendations put forth the following salient features:

1. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to be allowed to terminate calls on PSTN/mobile phones and vice-versa.

2. ISPs and National Long Distance (NLD) Operators to have mutual understanding among each other. NLDs to be permitted to use the public internet for unrestricted telephony.

3. Separate distinct numbers for Internet Telephony.

4. Emergency number dialing and Quality of Service have not been mandated yet.

As the world advances with newer and faster technologies, we are still stuck with the out dated ones. It is interesting to see the regulator come up with newer  recommendations that would hope to ease up our efforts to pace up with the global advancements.

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