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impact business growth, foreign exchange earnings, employment opportunities
and credibility with customers.
The other requirement is to change the policy and allow international leased
lines to be connected to PSTN in India. Similarly, interconnectivity across multiple
networks is a must. This is necessary because all forms of content—voice, image and
video
—
is getting converted to IP traffic and being sent across on the same network.
And this brings us to the second issue—voice over-IP. A situation has arrived where
India has to seriously think of opening up VOIP. It is understandable that when
licenses were issued to private basic/cellular operators VOIP was not discussed.
Thus, basic phone providers may argue that VOIP may mean loss of revenue for
them. But the government could compensate them adequately. The point is that
India should not wait for 10 years to allow VOIP. We will have to sit down and
resolve this issue amicably.
For years, IT experts have been shouting themselves hoarse over the need for
greater bandwidth in the country. Now, the software industry is intensifying its
lobbying for the cause. We need to do this or be prepared to lose our competitive
advantage in the global arena.
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