March 15, 2002

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GOVERNMENT ACCEPTS TRAI RECOMMENDATIONS ON OPENING UP OF INTERNET TELEPHONY

    Government had decided to allow Internet Telephony from April 1, 2002. Accordingly, the recommendations of TRAI had been sought on the matter on 20th July, 2001. Recommendations of TRAI were received on 20th February, 2002. The TRAI recommendations were put on the DoT website on 21st February, 2002 inviting suggestions from the interested persons by 3rd March, 2002. After duly examining the matter, the Government has now decided to accept the recommendations. The detailed guidelines would be issued by March 22, 2002.

    The customers of ISPs would be able to avail this service from their Personal Computers (PCs) capable of processing voice signals or other IP based Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) as mentioned below:-

    1. PC to PC (Both within as well as outside India)
    2. PC to Telephone (PC in India to Telephone outside India)
    3. IP based H.323/SIP Terminals in India to similar Terminals both in India and abroad, employing IP addressing scheme of ‘IANA’.