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BPOs up in arms against proposed ban on foreign Net telephony service providers; say they will face massive loss

BPOs up in arms against proposed ban on foreign Net telephony service providers; say they will face massive loss

Indian security agencies are heaving a sigh of relief as the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) plans to clamp down on all foreign Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers in the country. But the business process outsourcing (BPO) honchos are taking it with a pinch of salt.

The BOP industry fears that the restricted use of Net telephony will increase the cost of operation.

"VoIP is important as BPOs are under tremendous pressure to reduce costs. Also, it helps home agents work more efficiently. Besides, companies have already spent a huge amount to set up VOIP gateways to make calls cheaper by 60 to 70 per cent," said Swaroop Jain, the IT head of a leading knowledge process outsourcing firm in Gurgaon.

Many people from the industry feel that banning Net telephony service providers like Skype and Yahoo may not be the best solution for security agencies either. They want the government to consider ways to record or tap calls made through the Internet and collect taxes from such service providers.

"Ban on VoIP will lead to massive loss in the outsourcing industry. Its demand has significantly increased in the last few years and is more involving than other technologies used," said Salil Agrawal, head of the IT department in an international call centre at Noida.

Internet service providers had been for long demanding a ban on unlicensed Foreign Service providers such as Net2Phone, Vonage, Dialpad, Impetus, Novanet, Euros, Skype and Yahoo. As foreign operators do not come under domestic regulations, the motive behind taking the move is to address the larger issue of national security and loss of revenue.

Net issue
Department of Telecommunication views Foreign Service Providers of Net telephony as a serious security threat as they do not come under any Indian regulator and policy framework. International calls made through VoIP cannot be traced. The government hopes that following the ban, since minutes will be purchased from authorised players only, security agencies will have access to call detail records and trace suspicious calls.

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