Internet Telephony in India Status & Issues V K Agarwal Dy. Advisor(Converged Networks) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India 1

1st April 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 Status 2/26/2014 2

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. 2/26/2014 3

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. 2/26/ Internet Telephony : Present Status (contd.)

5 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 – 5.00 (in comparison to Rs. 5 – 15 by ILDOs)

6 VoIP: Growth in India 2/26/2014

V O IP- R EGULATORY I SSUES Main VoIP specific regulatory issues are as follows: Interconnection Numbering Emergency Number Dialing Lawful Interception and Monitoring Interoperability and Standardization QoS 2/26/2014 7

I NTERCONNECTION 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 2/26/2014 8

I NTERCONNECTION U PCOMING S CENARIO

E MERGENCY NUMBER C ALLING 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. 2/26/

N UMBERING 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 2/26/

L AWFUL I NTERCEPTION 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. 2/26/

I NTEROPERABILITY AND S TANDARDIZATION 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 2/26/

Q UALITY OF S ERVICE 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 2/26/

15 Internet Telephony : TRAIs Recommendations 2/26/2014

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17 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 2/26/2014