TRAI recommendations on Internet telephony in two months

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) would submit its recommendations to the government on internet telephony in the next two months. Member TRAI R N Prabhakar told reporters on the sidelines of an open house on Internet Telephony that they would submit their recommendations to DoT within two months. In the consultation paper prepared by TRAI, the regulator had said that allowing fixed line and wireless mobile connectivity to internet service providers (ISPs) would provide a cheaper option to subscribers for making domestic and international long distance calls. He also said that this may act as a catalyst in boosting broadband penetration in the country, which was abysmally low. It would also help the callers in getting cheaper tariffs as compared to call charges on fixed line and cellular were relatively on the higher side. In the open house, cellular service operators sought a level playing field if the government allows ISPs to provide fixedline and mobile services in the country. Prabhakar said that by 2010 mobile subscribers would swell to more than 500 million. In this regard, the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) recommended that the number of digits would be increased from 10 to 11 by adding a prefix `9' to the existing numbers. He said that this change was needed due to stupendous growth in mobile services across the country. Prabhakar said that it was now upto the government in fixing the time frame for incorporating the changes.

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