[wsfii-discuss] FW: Free VoIP.

Sun Jul 30 16:50:51 UTC 2006

Mahabir:

This is Hitesh,

I agree with most of what dave says , from what i understand the situation
in India is not very different either.
The Govt policy doesnt say clearly where and how are you allowed to use
VoIP,
the summary of the policy states that you are not allowed to use VoIP if the
concerned parties both reside in the country i.e. dont use VoIP if the
starting and terminating line are in India.

Rather connections to the US over a VoIP device are allowed by some ISP's
(with a heavy surcharge at both ends) either consciously or not.
Here local ISP's are asked by the Govt to block all VoIP traffic
irrespective of whether they are in the same country or otherwise.

I have some friends who have ISP's here and they allow a for VoIP use with a
surcharge, the same argument that Dave propses holds here, the telecom
companies are pushing towards a VoIP free communication. But ISP's are
working here to create a win-win situation . They allow VoIP traffic with a
surcharge thats almost distributed between the ISP and the telecom
companies. Since BSNL the major telecom company in India sort of holds a
monolpoly in internet traffic they wont allow VoIP traffic over its network
in case its unpaid for.

I hope you find the information useful
Regards
Hitesh Shetty

On 7/30/06, Dave Hughes <dave at oldcolo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Mahabir:
>
> I am only surprised that you wonder why Voip is illegal in some
> countries,including Nepal. And where it is 'free.'
>
> Remember I said in my earlier advice, that you need to understand WHO is
> harmed by 'unlicensed' wireless. Same for VOIP.
>
> If VOIP becomes 'free' and 'legal' by Nepalese government decision that is
> taking money right out of the Nepalese owned Telephone Company pockets.
> And
> thus out of the Nepalese Treasury. As wireless and VOIP grows it will put
> the Telephone Company out of business! Surely you understand that is a
> THREAT to a large Nepalese operation, and the jobs it provides.
>
> I doubt if any country has deliberately ruled that VOIP is 'free.' Why?
> Because (1) VOIP is very new Internet capabilities (2) it directly, where
> it
> is used, COMPETES with telephone companies EVERYWHERE including the United
> States. American private (but regulated) telephone companies hate VOIP. It
> is already harming them. And ordinary wired Telephone Systems cannot
> handle
> VOIP. The only exception is that, if you have the right software - like
> Skype and a PC which only uses 36kbs of bandwidth while circuit switched
> telephone lines have up to 56kbps, one can sometimes make a PPP protocol
> call over the Telephone Company lines, which you pay for monthly- and have
> a
> dialup connection to some dialup Internet service, THEN you can make a
> VOIP
> call. But it is NOT free, because (1) you have to pay for your telephone
> company line and (2) you have to pay the Internet provider. So only after
> you pay BOTH of those is VOIP 'free'. AND, the Telephone Company, while
> not
> objecting to that, REALLY gets bent out of shape if you THEN call LONG
> DISTANCE AND INTERNATIONAL by VOIP, because you are NOT paying the
> Telephone
> Company the big bucks they get for Long Distance, voice telephone calls!
>
> I can now, and routinely, call Tsering 'free' by Skype. Computer to
> computer, via his satellite Internet to my Internet connected computer
> (which is not free for either of us)
>
> SO the big traditional US Telephone companies hate VOIP! Everywhere in the
> world. And now they are trying to get the US government (FCC and Congress)
> to force anyone offering VOIP to pay a surcharge called the Universal
> Service Fund (USF) on top of whatever they pay for an Internet connection.
> Far from offering FREE Voip, even the US Government is heading for
> CHARGING
> for VOIP separately! Even if the connection is wireless and bypasses all
> local telephone company circuits
>
> And I think that is the reaction in a lot of other countries, ESPECIALLY
> national government owned Telephone Companies, to VOIP. You have a
> difficult
> task to convince Nepal to take money away from ITS telephone company to
> provide 'free' VOIP. Regardless of the Common good for Education as you
> are
> doing.
>
> The only solution, that will work Politically in Nepal, in my opinion, is
> either to get the national government to adopt, as the US has, a long time
> ago, a subsidy in which Business, and central City telephone service pays
> a
> surcharge - more than rural folks - and that money is paid to the rural
> telephone company to permit it to charge LESS to its customers. Or, if
> VOIP
> is only available at schools for education of children, but NOT available
> to
> businesses, then, just as the US enacted, a 'School, Library' fund for
> Internet Connections to those schools. Even that is very controversial.
>
> But as I said, 'free VOIP' threatens the Nepalese PTT. You have to think
> of
> ways to get around that, by compromise if necessary, or some brilliant way
> that the Telephone Company does NOT lose lots of revenue, and future
> growth,
> but your people get connected. Tough, worldwide problem. And Nepalese
> Parliament members don't want to have to CHOOSE between you, Himanchal,
> AND
> the National Telephone Company.
>
> First rule of advocacy politics. NEVER force politicians to make difficult
> win-lose decisions. Find a way for them to make BOTH parties happy. Or at
> least less sad. YOU solve THEIR Political problem with a clever idea or
> scheme they never thought of. And then give them credit. I've been doing
> that for decades. Play to Win-Win, not Win-Lose. Or you will lose more
> often
> than win when you are up against vested interests. The Nepalese Telephone
> company is a vested interest. It's a Sacred Yak!
>
> The only reason you, and Tsering, and Thame School and Yeti Airlines have
> gotton away with 'illegal' VOIP, is because the Nepalese Government barely
> understands it, AND it is being done so far away from Kathmandu that
> nobody
> is enforcing it. Believe you me I had a hard time getting Cisco Voip
> telephones through Customs without bribes in 1994. The customs agents
> didn't
> understand what those black boxes were - they looked like ordinary
> telephone.
>
> But they are learning.
>
> Dave Hughes
> dave at oldcolo.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mahabir Pun [mailto:mahabir at himanchal.org]
> Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2006 8:14 AM
> To: Jim Forster
> Cc: mahabir at himanchal.org; Howard Greenstein; Gordon Cook; Dave Hughes;
> Tom
> Munnecke; Malcolm Odell; DavidHughes; JohnMaloney; David S. Isenberg
> Subject: I am also looking for information on VoIP.
>
> Hello All;
>
> Today I got letter from Nepal Telecom promising to provide 20 telephone
> lines in Pokhara for our project. It is the city where we have base
> station for the network. We will connect those telephone lines to our
> Wireless network and provide telephone services to the villages in remote
> areas. I know that the telephone calls will take some bandwidth of the
> network, but I am sure that it still will be good enough for Internet
> connection and for other purposes. If the network gets slower, we will put
> better radios for the backbone. Now we have Canopies BH-20 for the
> backbone.
>
> Right now, VoIP is illegal in Nepal. Therefore I am also lobbying to make
> VoIP calls free. It is because our project uses VoIP for live
> tele-teaching and telemedicine purpose. We also use VoIP to connect the
> call from the remote villages to landlines of Nepal Telecom to make calls
> outside the network.
>
> Could you please tell me if VoIP call is free in those countries where 2.4
> GHz and 5.7 GHz bands are license free? If the government in some of the
> countries have made it illegal to use, why is that.
>
> The reason I am asking is because I want to present the government the
> list of the countries where is is free.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Mahabir
>
>
> --
> Please visit our school and village at http://www.himanchal.org
>
>
>
> --
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>
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