[nukkad] India to allow Internet telephony

[Harshal Chhaya <>]

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Tip of the day:  Re-use your plastic bags. 
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This was in the Mumbai Grapevine newsletter earlier this week.
It is interesting that the govt. is allowing VoIP services right
when it is stepping away from VSNL. They managed the monopoly well
all these years and now that someone else (the public and other
investors) is involved, they introduce competition.




India to allow Internet telephony
(Agence France-Presse) 

India in April will begin to allow Internet-based telephone calls--also 
known as Internet telephony or voice over IP (VoIP)--which can slash 
the cost of calls to consumers, Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan said. 

Access to the new technology, which promises a boom in India's telecom 
industry, is being taken as India ends the overseas telephone service 
monopoly of state-run Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL). 

The government has so far not allowed Internet telephony in India over 
fears that it would bring in a number of private service providers and cut 
into VSNL's revenue. 

"My ambition is to provide cheaper and technologically advanced services 
to our customers. Technology cannot be stopped," Mahajan told a 
high-powered economic meet in New Delhi. 

The department of telecommunication has already sent a letter to India's 
telecom regulator seeking its advice on introducing Internet phone calls, 
the minister said. 

Mahajan said the sale of a 25-percent shareholding in VSNL, which is 
currently 100-percent owned by the government, will be completed before 
the end of the current financial year which ends in March. 

VSNL is one of the blue chip state firms seen as lined up for privatization 
as part of an ambitious government liberalization program. 




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