The Hindu Business Line : IB may vet Net telephony applications

New applications from companies wanting a licence for offering Internet telephony in the country may be scrutinised by the Intelligence Bureau. This comes after the vigilance section of the Department of Telecom found out that the network of some of the existing Internet Service Providers (ISP) were allegedly being used for carrying international long-distance calls illegally.

DoT has put on hold applications from at least 25 companies wanting to offer Internet-based services following reports from the vigilance section. The list of companies whose applications have been put on hold includes Sify, DSL Internet and Spectranet. While 18 of these applications are for offering Internet telephony, 10 applications that have been put on hold are for basic ISP licence.

Accountability

DoT is also separately taking steps to make cellular and fixed line telephone operators more accountable, as these grey market calls are finally landing on their network. The ISPs, whose network was allegedly being used by grey market operators, said that they were not to be blamed as it was being done by some of their clients. The ISPs have also sought action on services from messenger-based services such as Skype, Yahoo and MSN, which were offering telephony services without any monitoring or licence fee.

While DoT has admitted that the ISPs themselves may not be involved in illegal activities, it has observed that the ISPs should have been more vigilant. Others in the net include Siti Cable, Exact Communications, Akash Network and Exalt Technologies.