Re: Airtel does it...

There is precedent for this nonsense. VSNL gave you the only Net connection
available in the mid 1990s if you promised not to use VOIP. When Internet
telephony was allowed, only ISPs could provide it -- this time ISPAI was
responsible for successful but ill-advised lobbying.  BSNL has on occasion
seen fit to redefine what it considered to be the Internet. For instance,
VPNs were removed from being part of the Internet at some stage. And then,
when the Universal telecom license came in, you had to hold a nationwide
license to be able to offer VOIP, which is the current status. Please do
correct me if my memory is defective.

Didn't Airtel say that this was only for prepaid accounts? They are
probably testing the waters. Given the high level of illiteracy in the
country, as also the reluctance of those like me to commit anything to text
that can appear in a court of law, or something, I bet telephony is a
sufficiently important part of the average Internet experience to get many
people to jump ship. This might just be the excuse many people need, to try
out the new guy.

Um, if one were ditching Airtel, which service should one pick, say:

1. Below Rs. 1000 a month
2. Below Rs. 3000 a month

Oh, and surely one can complain to TRAI on this matter? Tariff is their
domain.

warmly,
Arun

On Fri Dec 26 2014 at 11:01:23 Banibrata Dutta <[email protected]>
wrote:

> Goes against net-neutrality... to charge for VoIP calls -- Skype, Viber,
> Line etc.
> Perhaps time for revival of robust p2p VoIP technology (given that Skype,
> no longer counts)... but hey, the draconian IT laws prohibit strong
> encryption, so in-theory (I think) one could still do DPI with brute-force
> decryption (sans keys), else for P2P I am not sure how they can enforce any
> of this.
>
> Anyhow, I wonder how they can go against the fact that TRAI had rejected
> the proposal forcing OTT players to share revenues with telecom operators.
> It does seem to go against it in principle & spirit, if not against the
> written word!
>
> PS> The airtel clarification isn't 100% clear, but looks like their
> "regular" data plans would case to exist, once the new plans with
> chargeable VoIP starts.
>
> Also, Airtel seems to want to charge for both incoming and outgoing VoIP
> calls, that goes against the commonly established norm where, barring the
> case of roaming, incoming calls are not charged.
>
> --
> regards,
> Banibrata Dutta
>  _______________________________________________
> India-gii mailing list
> India-gii-IAPFreCvJWP2/[email protected]
> https://lists.india-gii.org/mailman/listinfo/india-gii
>

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