India: telecom regulator launches public consultation on Internet telephony

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has launched a public consultation on ‘Internet telephony (VoIP)’. The paper published by TRAI explains that ‘Internet Telephony can be deemed to be a subset of Voice over IP, in the sense that, when voice is carried over an IP network it can be termed as Voice over IP. And if the IP network in this case is the public Internet then it can be called Internet telephony’. Stakeholders, and especially telecom service providers, are invited to answer a number of questions on aspects such as: additional entry fees for ISPs if they are allowed to provides unrestricted Internet telephony, interconnection, transit of calls, interconnection usage charges, number portability for Internet telephony numbers, and quality of service.