Companies set to connect India via VoIP

Now making calls over the internet will not be confined to just Delhi and Mumbai. The entire country will have access to the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service in the New Year. Over half-a-dozen companies including Sterlite Optical, Aksh Optifibre, Indus Online and Smart Broadband are in the race for providing internet telephony (VoIP) on the BSNL platform. The number is expected to go up in the next few days. BSNL had invited expression of interest (EoI) for providing VoIP service earlier this month and had asked companies to submit their proposals by December 28.
The company has, however, extended the date for submitting the EoIs as new enquiries were pouring in. “We have decided to extend the date of EoI submission by at least a week,” said a BSNL official.
Sources said that January 6 is likely to be the new deadline. Only four companies will be chosen by BSNL for providing the service. Presently, MTNL is the only company providing VoIP service through a tie-up with Aksh Optifibre. This facility is limited to subscribers of New Delhi and Mumbai only because of the limited reach of the company. Initially, BSNL had plans to start internet telephony service by the end of the year. However, the move got delayed because of last minute enquiries and requests for clarifications from a number of interested parties. The state-owned company has divided the country into two zones — the North West and South East zones for offering the VoIP service. 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 open to those who do not have a PC at home. Such customers will be required to subscribe to BSNL’s broadband connection (for monthly rentals starting at Rs 199) and buy an analog telephone adaptor for about Rs 1,500. On the tarrif front, BSNL is set to match MTNL. This implies, 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. Interestingly, there is hardly any interest among private license holders in offering the service on their own as they are afraid of incurring losses due to the comparatively low profit in the business. But BSNL’s entry into this segment is set to change the market dynamics and force other operators to follow suit even if it eats into their revenues from ISD calls.