Indian Government to regulate VOIP

We all knew you can make calls out to USA, UK and other european countries for free with VOIPCHEAP (Please check my review of this software in earlier posts). Unfortunately, India has been a part of the VOIP Free club and has always denied getting into it. One of the issues, the regulatory in India which is constantly against the growth of VOIP and has never let it enter the market. Although, there are many other ways by which VOIP has got into the country.

However, you can't still route your calls to normal PSTN (MTNL/BSNL/Other landlines) for FREE since they still charge a connect charge to it. That makes you pay for that so called FREE VOIP. Althoug,h, there are many ways you could get through it by using a SIP Phone. I would write a detail article on how you can make FREE calls using SIP phones to India from anywhere in the world and vice versa. Please check back soon.

It seems that the indian government is too scared about the potential growth and smart NRIs using cheap VOIP services to call back india so they have now decided to regulate it.

According to the new VOIP policy, Companies must reveal the names of authorised service providers they purchase bandwidth and internet telephony minutes from. Companies will also have to promise that they will not use the services of unlicensed foreign providers.

The paper says that Department of Telecommunications’ (DOT) estimates that 30 million minutes of internet telephony are provided every month by “unlicensed” services. The department also said that VoIP services could pose a security risk as they are not subject to Indian regulatory and policy framework.

Hats off to India and NRI's now its time to get flexible on your SKYPEOUT bills, unless you can find the next FREE VOIP provider or get a SIP phone for yourself and your family.