Internet Telephony in IndiaStatus & Issues

V K AgarwalDy. Advisor(Converged Networks)

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

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1st April 2002 - Internet telephony opened in India

Only then existing ISPs were allowed to provide

Internet telephony

Presently following are permitted, to provide Internet

Telephony service. CMSPs : unrestricted (yet to be started)

UASPs : unrestricted (yet to be started)

BSOs : unrestricted (yet to be started)

ISPs : restricted

Internet Telephony :Present Status0

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Internet Telephony :Present Status (contd.)

ISPs permitted to provide Internet Telephony services

through public Internet by use of Personal Computer

(PC) or IP based Customer Premises Equipments

(CPE) connecting the following : PC to PC; within or outside India

PC / a device / Adapter conforming to standard of any

international agencies like- ITU or IETF etc. in India to

PSTN/PLMN abroad.

Any device / Adapter conforming to standards of

International agencies like ITU, IETF etc. connected to

ISP node with static IP address to similar device /

Adapter; within or outside India.

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Voice communication to and from a telephone connected

to PSTN/PLMN and following E.164 numbering prohibited

in India

Addressing scheme for Internet Telephony shall only

conform to IP addressing Scheme of Internet Assigned

Numbers Authority (IANA) exclusive of National

Numbering Scheme / plan applicable to subscribers of

Basic / Cellular Telephone service. Translation of E.164

number / private number to IP address allotted to any

device and vice versa, by the licensee to show compliance

with IANA numbering scheme is not permitted.

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Internet Telephony :Present Status (contd.)

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Internet Telephony :Present Status (contd.)

ISPs not permitted to establishing voice connection to any Public Switched Network in India

ISP nodes not permitted to use Dial up lines with outward dialing facility

No. of ISPs who are providing Internet Telephony – 32 (out of a total 164 operational ISPs)

Per minute tariff for an international call on average : Rs. 1.00 – 5.00 (in comparison to Rs. 5 – 15 by ILDOs)

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VoIP: Growth in India0

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VOIP- REGULATORY ISSUES

Main VoIP specific regulatory issues are as follows: Interconnection Numbering Emergency Number Dialing Lawful Interception and Monitoring Interoperability and Standardization QoS

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INTERCONNECTION

Charging mechanism Interconnecting parties

Telecom service providers or content provider including web based software led service provider

New advanced services based on IP protocol may require interconnection rights

IP Interconnection Exchange IP based Interconnection Exchange may be one of

the solution for making interconnection smoother and transparent to operators .

Problem of seeker and provider can be overcome

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INTERCONNECTIONUPCOMING SCENARIO

EMERGENCY NUMBER CALLING

Accurate identification of geographical location of VoIP

subscriber is limited by nomadic nature of IP based network

Routing emergency services call to appropriate

geographically decentralized emergency service centers and

provide them with appropriate location information

Internationally very few countries till now has mandated the

emergency number calling

Information to customer regarding unavailability of

emergency number calling is important before the user

subscribes to the service.

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NUMBERING

TDM voice service providers presently use E.164 numbering

as stipulated by Numbering plan

VoIP subscriber may also require suitable address such as

E.164 number specifically for receiving incoming calls from

PSTN/PLMN networks

Whether dedicated, geographical/ non-geographical numbers

Other type of addressing such as IP address, SIP ID or URL

are not user friendly and hence not in much of use.

End user devices required in such scenario are costly

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LAWFUL INTERCEPTION Lawful interception and Monitoring is necessary for security

and integrity of the state

Use of advance encoding & encryption techniques by service

providers can pose challenge to Lawful Interception and

Monitoring by security agencies The encryption level user by service providers therefore may

be restricted to a certain level 40 bit encryption is presently being allowed to internet service

providers in India. If higher encryption is used then the relevant encryption key is

to be made available to authority in advance.

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INTEROPERABILITY AND

STANDARDIZATION Interoperability and standardization is critical to retail telecom

markets for avoiding any delay in the introduction of new services

Presently available customer premises devices are being provided by using standard international protocols only.

Ensuring interoperability between VoIP based network and legacy network is of prime importance to improve the quality of VoIP services

Interoperability may significantly help reduction in price of end user equipments.

However mandate on interoperability and standardization will add on the project implementation costs

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QUALITY OF SERVICE

Present pattern of measuring and monitoring a defined set of QoS indicators established may not be applicable for VoIP services

Voice Quality in VoIP has improved due to advanced coding techniques and has considered to be equivalent to carrier grade voice quality

The need for survival of VoIP service provider in competitive telecom market will force them to offer the good Voice quality

Mandating QoS may impact on cost advantage due to VoIP carriage on unmanaged Internet environment as generally done by service providers

It may be required that service providers allow consumers to make informed choices based on information provided by service providers

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Internet Telephony :TRAI’s Recommendations

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Way Forward

International trends suggest VoIP will happen anyway VoIP is good for consumers

• Cost effective, nomadic and other features Internet Telephony may become driver for bridging the

digital divide. Opening of VoIP may drive broadband take up

Extension of fruits of technology to users in cost effective and user friendly manner is need of hour

IP telephony will drive innovation move from current distance/ time based tariffs to flat rate

bundled tariffs

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