BSNL to pilot VoIP network in six cities

Indranil Chakraborty in Kolkata

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is getting ready with voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology. The public sector communication behemoth is creating an IP-based network connecting six cities at a cost of Rs 7 crore.

The IP-based network will sit on top of the existing pulse code modulation (PCM) circuit, running on layer 3/layer 4.

According to Mr P Ganesh, deputy director general, strategic planning, six nodes located at Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune will have IP based network over the same communication channel. The responsibility of installing hardware like IP switches and gateways along with software has been given to ITI.

Said Mr Ganesh, “This will be a pilot project which will start by March 2002. After the successful completion of the pilot project, the plan of BSNL in the first phase is to connect the nodes of 21 cities in the country.”

As the Department of Telecommunication has decided to open up the VoIP facility for public networks, different telecom service carriers are getting ready to offer VoIP services over the telecom network.
The pilot is necessary to test the quality of service over some time. With the liberalisation in the telecom sector, VoIP will certainly be an important service to the consumers.

At present, VoIP services are legal over a closed user group. The users have to use their own hardware and software for voice services over leased circuit.

To send IP packets through IP-based networks, the telecom carriers have to create a layer 4 network through the installation of various hardware and software at the both end of the nodes.

Said Mr Satish Choudhury, the chief executive officer of Leading Edge Technology & Consultants (P) Ltd, a systems integration company, “It is good that BSNL as a service provider has realised the importance of VoIP technology. The experience of China Unicom which offers VoIP services in 330 cities shows that BSNL being the largest basic operator has immense potential to tap the vast Indian market, especially the corporates. If after April, it can offer this service to the small town residents, this will be a major source of revenue for the service operator.”

Minister for telecommunications Pramod Mahajan had recently announced that the government would stick to the April, 2002, deadline to legalise Internet telephony.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) recommendations on international long distance (ILD) telephony using VoIP for less than toll quality services have been accepted in toto by the government.