| In a move that is likely to affect nearly 5,000 small call centres across the country, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) recently directed Internet service providers (ISPs) to suspend provision of bandwidth to call centres and BPOs not registered with the DoT. |
| According to BSNL Director-Finance S D Saxena, the estimated loss of revenue due to "illegal net telephony" is around Rs 1,000 crore. However, he added, the "illegal centres constitute only 10 per cent of the overall BPO market." The move was prompted in part by the Government's desire to end 'illegal use' of Internet-based telephony provided by international companies such as Skype, Yahoo, Net2Phone and Vonage, by call centres. |
| The DoT estimates (2006) estimates unlicensed service companies such as Skype provide nearly 30 million minutes of Internet telephony per month to corporates, call centres and BPOs in the country. |
| BPIAI President Sam Chopra has called for "free access to the most cost-effective technologies, solutions and services from providers in India and overseas." |
| "With the restrictive practices being implemented by the DoT, our industry will lose out to other emerging outsourcing locations such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, the Philippines and Eastern Europe," he said, in a statement. |
| BPIAI, he added, would "be happy to work with DoT by acting as a single window for all call centres as a nodal agency for collection and initial scrutiny of registration applications, before filing" with the department. |
| Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) President Rajesh Chharia said, "We oppose the government's definition of 'illegal' . Many call centres have applied to the DoT for registration but have not heard from them for almost a year. Why can't the Government go after the Internet telephony providers? The small companies are being made scapegoats." |
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