VoIP News: Taiwan Assigning VoIP Numbers, Skype In Radio Shack, India's Legalization

By DAVID SIMS
TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist

Taiwan's Directorate-General of Telecommunications announced that they will allow voice over the Internet protocol users to be assigned a phone number, a move the China Post says makes it seem that "the high age of Web communication is on the doorstep."

The soon-to-be assigned numbers will start with 070, the Post says, followed by eight other digits: "With the number, users will be able to call from their cellphones or regular phones to an Internet phone without the need of a computer."

Taiwanese telecom service operators can now acquire a license to own multiple sets of Internet phone numbers so long as their applications are approved. 100 million sets of numbers have been open for acquisition, the Post says, adding that "once they own these numbers, service providers are entitled to resell them to their customers."

More than 3,000 RadioShack locations nationwide on Monday "will begin offering the Skype Starter Kit, which includes the software that enables a customer to use Skype's free computer-to-computer telephone service, a headset and 30 minutes of Skype's premium service, with which a user can call a landline or cell phone," ZDNet cites company executives saying.

India's Economic Times says the recent liberalization of India's net telephony "may not result in a substantial reduction in tariffs for national long-distance calls," but remains "good news for enterprises as well as consumers."

Apart from the obvious reduction of costs, consumers can "look forward to more net telephony-driven applications such as integration of audio, video and text," the journal says.

Rajiv Sharma, CEO, AirTel-Enterprise Services tells the journal that "tariffs are already at very low levels and in the short run, they are unlikely to dip further. But in the long run, with the entry of more players and competition, rates will drop."

IP applications, not simply lower-priced calls, are seen as driving the adoption of VoIP in the Indian consumer market: "With lower local tariffs, the driver for IP telephony will be advanced IP applications. For instance, integration between audio, video and text, voice workflows based on IVR, etc.," Alok Shende, who heads the telecom practice at Frost & Sullivan, India tells the Economic Times.

With its "newly found legal status," voice quality too is expected to improve, as Sharma says: "It will cease to be a matter of concern following the introduction of new norms. With regulation in place, quality will improve."
 

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

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