Gmail Telephony and Reality !!

If you got excited reading that you can now use your Google account to make calls on landline and mobile phones, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. Internet telephony is only partially allowed in India, which means you can only make calls from a PC to a PC and not from a PC to a phone. Why such a basic technology is denied to us is an interesting commentary on the telecom ministry's skewed priorities. While the ministry says, incorrectly, that it went by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) recommendations while awarding licences to eight new operators in January 2008, the same ministry has been sleeping over a Trai recommendation on Internet telephony for over two years�the recommendation suggested that Internet calls be allowed to be made to ordinary mobile and landlines.


Why are Trai's recommendations gathering dust in the department of telecommunications for over two years now? It's difficult to say, but it has to be pointed out that existing service providers who have licences for long distance telephony, both within the country as well as for international calls, are opposed to any such measure because once this happens, Internet Service Providers can start offering Google-like services in the country, thereby bringing further downward pressure on tariffs. The operators argue that while they have paid an entry fee (it used to be Rs 100 crore prior to 2005 and this is now down to Rs 2.5 crore), ISPs have not paid any, so they should not be allowed to offer such services without first paying a similar amount. Given how the entry fees have collapsed, the argument isn't too convincing. In any case, several operators have ISP licences as well, but they have not started offering Internet calls. Another argument made is that with average STD tariff falling to as low as 50 paisa per minute, there is no need for Internet telephony�Internet telephony, it is argued, only made sense at a time when long distance tariffs were very high. That may be correct, but shouldn't the choice of service be left to the consumers rather than the operators? If the quality of voice on Internet calls is really as bad as the phone companies say it is, then customers won't flock to use them, but give consumers that choice. Till such time that the ministry decides to move on Internet telephony, don't subscribe to that Google service.