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VOIP to be Made Illegal in India

Posted by samzenpus on from the the-internet-is-not-for-talking dept.

Krish writes "Providers like Skype, Yahoo, Net2phone, Dialpad, etc. will not be able to offer VOIP in India under the proposed govt. clampdown. BPOs and other call centers will face the axe if they use any of the VOIP services provided by the above companies. It is not clear if this clampdown will affect regular home users."

17 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Oh the irony... by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    Call your VOIP carrier's helpdesk and you might get hold of some guy in India.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Oh the irony... by siufish · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why should it be otherwise?

      Ask yourself honestly: will you make any purchase decision based on whether the call centers are in India or in the US? How many times does it come up in your head when you are picking a VOIP carrier? Shopping for a digital camera? Deciding between a Amex or a Visa card?

      Now ask yourself the next question: will you make any purchase decision based on the price? If one VOIP costs $19.99/month and has call centers in India, and another costs $39.99/month and employs only American citizen call agents, which one will you choose?

      To businesses, call centers are "cost centers", and accordingly should be as cheap as possible. If they can make the same amount of money with cheaper call centers, they will. If customers don't care, they won't care.

    2. Re:Oh the irony... by jamesh · · Score: 4, Insightful
      To businesses, call centers are "cost centers", and accordingly should be as cheap as possible. If they can make the same amount of money with cheaper call centers, they will. If customers don't care, they won't care.

      That bit about customers not caring is so true. But as soon as you start spending money outside of your community (village/city/stage/country), it's gone.

      People go and buy imported goods (and services now it seems) because they save a few dollars, and then bitch and moan because another factory has closed down and they're out of work. It's your own f*cking fault people!!! If you're lucky enough to live in a country that protects working conditions, then ffs don't go and buy stuff from a country that doesn't. You're only ripping yourselves off.

    3. Re:Oh the irony... by arivanov · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That may or may not be the case.

      1. The law has been in force for a very long time. Ask anyone who has actually done a proper costing and the legal aspects of outsourcing to India and they will tell you this.

      2. The law as such dissallows you to interface into a PBX or anything else which is also connected to the local network over there. In fact as far as the letter of law is concerned this is not that much different from telco regulations in many places around the world.

      3. The law does not dissallow you to host as many VOIP phones there as you like provided that they are off your own PBX located outside India and do not interface into the local phone network by any means. So a call center whose guts are located offshore is still fully legal. On(Indian)shore is very murky and it is not something call center outsourcers care about. After all the call center chickens working 10.5 hour shifts are usually not allowed local calls anyway.

      4. As far as Yahoo, Dialpad, etc are concerned they are simply required to be registered under the Indian telecoms regs to offer service. This for all practical purposes means that they or their subsidiaries will have to go under majority Indian ownerships. So much for WTO here (actually dunno if they are a member). In fact it is about time someone beat up India in terms of trade treaties and obligations on this.

      So overall, this law does not change anything as far as call centers are concerned. The Idian government is not mad to kill their primary GDP source. All it does is to ensure that the near-monopoly of Idian companies on the Idian telecoms market is retained for times to come.

      --
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    4. Re:Oh the irony... by PaneerParantha · · Score: 4, Informative
      People do not seem to have read the article.

      It doesn't say that VOIP will be banned in India, it says:

      1. Illegal Web calls by BPOs face axe

      2. Companies...not use the services of unlicensed foreign service providers such as Net2Phone, Vonage, Dialpad, Impetus, Novanet, Euros, Skype and Yahoo

      3. According to official sources, foreign players such as Skype, in addition to disturbing the level-playing field for bonafide licensees, were also causing great revenue loss to the government as they did not pay the 12% service tax and 6% revenue share on internet telephony.

      4. The government move, when implemented, will fulfil a long-pending demand of internet service providers (ISPs).

      5. ...call centres and BPOs can ensure that they are availing services from an authorised service provider.
      IOW, VOIP won't be banned but more regulated.

      The headline of this story is sensationalist.

  2. Just one more effort by zappepcs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    of the uninformed to try to control what they have no clue about in order to protect outdated and now irrelevant business models... sigh

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    Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
    1. Re:Just one more effort by Atlantis-Rising · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...that 'outdated and irrelevant business model' would be the government, seeing as they are, according to TFA, pissed off that the VOIP companies are not paying their taxes.

      --
      "It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
  3. Re:In classic Slashdot form... by Atlantis-Rising · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The short answer: Tax money. VIOP providers were not paying it, so the government is making them illegal.

    --
    "It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
  4. Re:In classic Slashdot form... by stoolpigeon · · Score: 4, Informative

    they aren't banning it. they are banning the use of voip that comes from outside the country, doesn't pay taxes, isn't bound by Indian law, etc.

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  5. Re:only donkey dongs use VOIP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    There needs to be something like a math problem presented as a slightly distorted image whenever you try to post on Slashdot. That way only those with reasonable intelligence can post.

  6. Re:In classic Slashdot form... by jrockway · · Score: 4, Funny

    And that's exactly why we have strong cryptography.

    Government: You're illegally calling people.
    You: No, that's e-mail.
    Government: Oh.

    --
    My other car is first.
  7. Only UNLICENSED VOIP to be made illegal in India by Somegeek · · Score: 5, Informative
    Another exciting headline that unfortunately has little to do with the truth.

    In the linked article it states that goal of the proposed legislation is that call centers are not going to be allowed to continue to use unlicensed VOIP. That is a huge difference from the Slashdot headline claiming that India is banning VOIP.

    India is quite happy to have them use domestic Indian VOIP providers thereby allowing the government to tax and regulate them. Much like we have in the US where the FCC regulates and taxes VOIP providers.

    --
    And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
  8. Oblig by Swimport · · Score: 4, Funny

    If VOIP is illegal, only criminals will have VOIP.

  9. Re:Funny as hell by smallpaul · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, when I read this, I couldn't help but laugh at all of the dumb companies that thought that they could save money by investing in [India]

    There is no question that companies are saving (and making) money by investing billions in India. A few VOIP taxes are not going to change that.

    [India] is still, essentially, a third world country.

    Nobody said otherwise. India is a developing economy. You have a very strange understanding of economics if you think that you cannot make money in a developing economy. Look at the bushfulls of money that have been made in the last 50 years in (e.g.) Korea, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, China, etc.

    They should've realized that a few McDonald's and a rudimentary grasp of English doesn't make a country a first world country, (a good place to do business).

    Rapidly growing economies are precisely where you go to do business.

    I hope the backwater Indian government continues to tax "outsiders" in their own provincial way so that these stupid companies will learn their lessons.

    America's backwater government also taxes "outsiders" in a provicial way. Haven't you heard about Bush's protectionism: http://www.progress.org/2003/trade12.htm

    I think that India has a LONG way to go before it should be considered as any kind of technological powerhouse, and I think that this is a strong sign that that is true.

    India's software industry alone is worth $20 billion. Tata infotech took 23 years to make its first billion and 23 months to make its second. Is that a powerhouse comparable to the American industry? Probably not. Does it matter? India's tech industry is strong, healthy and growing, no matter how much you might wish otherwise. Save your schadenfreude for someone who deserves it. You might want to read this to learn what's really going on in India: http://www.economist.com/business/PrinterFriendly. cfm?story_id=5300960

  10. The world will be a worse place by TheLink · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Gather a mob, shoot the bureaucrats between the eyes" "The world would be a better place if this happened more frequently."

    Really? It already happens a bit too frequently, and the world is a worse place for it.

    Typically it's the mob leaders who don't mind killing people who end up in power (because the "other options" end up dead - doh). And that's how people like Mao, Saddam Hussein, the leaders of Syria, Sudan, etc rise to the top - their opponents either get killed, jailed, or exiled. And that is why Karl Marx's Communism dreams tend to end up as nightmares - because he suggested violence as a means to communism.

    If you keep doing that once in a while if you get lucky you get a benevolent dictator or a dictator who somehow thinks that democractic elections are a good idea.

    But what are the odds? If you end up in such a scenario it may be better to just wait (leave or stay) and hope that the dictator picks successors who are less violent (which has a higher chance of happening, since the dictator will want to eliminate threats - e.g. others like him). Then when the time is right you make a move for mass civil disobedience - NOT violence and hope the soldiers will disobey as well.

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  11. Re:In classic Slashdot form... by Nasarius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Irrelevant. Read the damn Constitution. It only protects you from being forced to testify against YOURSELF. Skelton is in jail for refusing to give information about SOMEONE ELSE.

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    LOAD "SIG",8,1
  12. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion