Telecom operators don’t want ISPs to get permission to provide VoIP services

Telecom operators don’t want ISPs to get permission to provide VoIP services

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is the Indian body which represents the GSM operators in the country.

They have now objected to the Trai’s recommendation that the internet service providers in the country should be allowed to offer VoIP based telephony services.

COAI has stated that if this permission is granted to the ISPs operating in the country it would allow them to compete with telecom services whilst paying only a fraction of their license fees. This would further create a non level playing field.

They are now demanding that the ISPs wanting to provide internet telephony be required to pay the same revenue share, license fee and other conditional ties applicable to telecom players in the country.

Internet Service Providers Association of India president Rajesh Charia responded to these claims in a statement: “While ISPs can carry calls from a PC in India to landlines and mobiles abroad, we cannot do the same in India. Since we cannot compete with telecom operators here, it is the ISPs which do not have a level playing field. Further, all telecom operators have been permitted to provide unrestricted internet telephony from April 2006, but not a single player offers this service. When they deprive Indian citizens of cheap and highly economical telephony, they have no authority to make such narrow minded statements.”