VOIP in India to grow faster

Gone were the days when VOIP in India was Rich man's dream. Now making calls over the Internet in India is easier than ever. The Indian ISP and broadband providers are all gearing up to enter the fast growing Indian VOIP market.

Over half-a-dozen companies including Sterlite Optical, Aksh Optifibre, Indus Online and Smart Broadband are in the race for providing internet telephony (VoIP) on the BSNL platform. It seems BSNL/MTNL will enter the Voice over Internet telephony market will full force. BSNL had invited expression of interest (EoI) for providing VoIP service earlier this month and had asked companies to submit their proposals by December 28.

Currently, MTNL is providing a SIP based VOIP service in Mumbai and Delhi. However since its limited to only 2 cities, rest of the indians ain't able to enjoy the benefit of VOIP. BSNL has wider coverage across india including the remote villages. BSNL's foray into VOIP will not only spread VOIP to masses it will converge India dramatically.

According to current market information, You need to be existing BSNL customer with Broaband connection or else you need to buy analog VOIP adapter. Tariffs for those who make PC-to-PC calls are likely to be as low as 10 paise per minute, while a call made from a PC to a landline or mobile abroad would cost a little over Re 1 per minute on account of the termination charges.

I wonder how fast BSNL can bring VOIP to rural India. Thats the key to success. Once the whole India is powered by VOIP. That will be red carpet for VOIP companies who are keen to explore the indian market.

We have already seen some great action from Indian telecom companies, mainly Tringme. There are host of other companies knocking the Indian shore.

Hopefully the VOIP scene in India will improve in 2008 and we all can talk for free :-)