MTNL launches VoIP service in Delhi

New Delhi, Aug 24 (UNI) State-owned PSU Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) today launched its internet telephony or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, Netfone, which will allow its customers to make an international call to any part of the world for as low as one rupee per minute through their fixed line phones.

MTNL thus becomes the first company in the country to provide internet telephony, where subscribers can enjoy ISD calls at quite nominal rate without a PC.

''The service is being launched initially on a pre-paid basis.

The service will use the existing telephone line at 35 kbps per call so the speed of broadband might be affected but the voice quality will not,'' said MTNL Chairman and Managing Director R S P Sinha.

Under the service, one has to just subscribe to MTNL's broadband connection, which comes with monthly rentals starting at Rs 199, and also buy an Analog Telephone Adaptor (ADA) from the PSU for Rs 1,500.

The adaptor converts the land line phone into an IP (internet protocol) device so that the user does not have to use a computer and carry it over the broadband internet line.

The present system capacity is 50,000 for VoIP subscribers and plans to get 10,000 connections for this financial year and 50,000 connections for the next year.

''The telecom operators and the government is losing revenue because of the illegal modes of calling through internet and the voice quality is also inferior. We want to provide the best services to our customers,'' Mr Sinha said.

The call charges from VoIP to PSTN/mobile phone to the US, the UK, Canada and Australia would be one rupee per minute, while charges for Japan and Malaysia would be two rupees per minute, he added.

The services will be offered under two plans -- Plan VoIP 200 with a monthly rental of Rs 200 and 400 minutes of SIP-SIP calls free and 20 paise per minute thereafter.

The other plan, VoIP 400 has a monthly rental of Rs 400 and has 800 minutes of SIP-SIP calls free, and 10 paise per minute thereafter.

The pre-paid cards would be available in denomination of Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 with a validity of three, six and 12 months respectively.

UNI