VoIP Services Expansion in India
Source: solokay.blogspot.com
VoIP services in India will be extended to include some major cities
and towns in order to allow internet users in these areas enjoy the
benefits of internet telephony. These services that were confined to
only Delhi and Mumbai will now be offered to the entire country in
this New Year. Already plan as been concluded to make this offer a
reality and BSNL, which is the state own company coordinating VoIP
activity in the country, has invited expression of interest (EoI) for
providing VoIP service from interested companies and more than six
companies had already indicated interest. The companies include;
Sterlite Optical, Aksh Optifibre, Indus Online and Smart Broadband, it
is however expected that within the next few days the number will
increase.
Although, the deadline for submission of proposal was December 28,
BSNL has extended the date of submission to allow for effectiveness.
According to a BSNL official, "we have decided to extend the date of
EoI submission by at least a week,’ and the new deadline will not
exceed the second week of January with only four companies to be
chosen to offer the service.
VoIP service was confined to only Delhi and Mumbai because MTNL, the
only company offering the service through a tie-up with Aksh
Optifibre, has limited reach and could only service these two
locations.
All the effort of BSNL to ensure that the service reaches other areas
by the end of last year were rendered futile as a result of late
preparation of enquiries and clarifications in the part of parties
showing interest in the offer.
Now ready to jump-start business for offering the service in these
chosen areas, BSNL has divided the country into two zones namely; the
North West and the South East zones. In each zone the company would
offer franchisee to two companies. However, one company cannot get
franchisee for both the zones. The BSNL offer will also be opened to
those who do not have a PC at home. However, such users will need to
subscribe to BSNL’s broadband connection at the monthly rate of Rs 199
with additional Rs1,500 for analog telephone adaptor.
The company has also concluded plan on tariffs system, tariffs for
those who make PC-to-PC calls are likely to be as low as 10 paise per
minute, while a call made from a PC to a landline or mobile abroad
would cost a little over Re 1 per minute on account of the termination
charges. BSNL also plans to offer this service in its 2.5 million plus
PCOs in the country.
Existing license holders, too, were interested in providing the
service on BSNL platform but the pre-bid document does not permit
existing license holders to participate in the bidding process. "We
are confident of winning the bid as amongst companies which are not
existing license holders ours is the only one which has got experience
in providing the VoIP service on a large scale through our partnership
with MTNL," Aksh Optifibre managing director K S Choudhuri said.
