Author: KK
Woke up today to two contrasting piece of news. Canada has gone against the regulatory authority (CRTC) to de-regulate the VoIP market, while India is gearing up to regulate the ISP and VoIP market.
The news report in today?s Economic Times (Indian Edition, dated Friday 17 November) reads “the government has decided against issuing license to new ISPs until it comes with new comprehensive policy”
It further reads “…This means that Internet telephony services offered by global players would attract a service tax of 12.24% and a revenue share of 6%. In addition, they will have to invest in monitoring mechanisms and share call records with the security agencies.”
The other news piece, which already many bloggers have reported, is Ottawa pulling plug on VoIP regulation. The government has further hinted that it will deregulate the entire telecom market.
This summarizes on how two governments are reacting to their country needs. The market scenarios are quite different in both these countries. I may not be able to comment much on Canada, and would gladly leave it to Mark Evans.
My take on Indian News: The news comes at a bad time when more than couple of players with investments of over few million has been waiting for government nod. In my view, the issue of national security bothers Indian government. This is the reason why it opened the door for VoIP quite late. Earlier, similar security issue were raised when Egypt based Orascom increased its stake in Hutchison Telecom International. Orascom has significant interest in both Pakistan and Bangladesh. Now Orascom has given up India hopes.
This apart, Indian Government is concerned that opening of gates to the foreign player may lead to loss of revenues for the ‘government controlled? largest telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)
