CHENNAI: Different segments of the telecommunications industry of the United States of America have appealed to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to work for removal of "stringent'' restrictions imposed by India, even while acknowledging and welcoming the liberalisations that has been effected by the Indian government and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in recent years, going by postings on the USTR's website.

In its representation to the Office of the USTR, the VON (Voice On the Net) Coalition emphasised that VoIP (voice over internet protocol) "is not a new kind of telecom service but a whole new frontier in communications'' requiring a "new forward-looking framework'' and not mere a "reflexive application of legacy telecom regulations.''

The VON Coalition said that to protect local exchange carriers (ILECs) and interexchange carriers (IXCs) from losing revenue, TRAI had established stringent rules prohibiting VoIP providers from directly interconnecting to the PSTN to terminate calls, and specifically prohibited any VoIP provider from terminating calls to the Indian PSTN, whether to a landline or mobile operator. VoIP could not be used to access India's traditional telephony devices "thereby curbing the growth of VoIP and limiting the potential of the technology to expand communications opportunities.''

Similar restrictions, it pointed out, applied to private enterprises that wished to use VoIP to provide internal communications to their employees. It also criticised the "burdensome and in some cases nonsensical quality of service (QoS) requirements for long distance VoIP services which are not applied elsewhere.''

Another organisation, the Coalition of Service Industries (CSI), has complained that India continues to place "an unreasonable and discriminatory ADC (access deficit charge) burden on foreign international service providers and their customers making calls to India."

New York-based United States Council for International Business, in its representation to the USTR, expressed the hope that the government would allow resale of international private leased circuits (IPLCs) as recommended by TRAI.

In respect of submarine cabling capacity, it said the "absence of effective cable landing station access regulation'' severely inhibited the competitive possibilities afforded by reforms undertaken by the DoT (Department of Telecommunications) and TRAI. It alleged that "the incumbent carrier'' enjoyed an "unrestrained ability'' to charge extremely high amounts for cross-connection between the cable head and carriers' lo-location equipment, to prevent or delay much-needed capacity upgrades and delay the ability of other carriers to install and connect their equipment.

Washington-based Satellite Industry Association, in its response on direct-to-home (DTH) services, said there were no technical or commercial reasons why foreign satellite capacity should need to be procured through the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) of the Department of Space which was a direct competitor of foreign satellites.

It also called for removal of Ku-band restrictions in broadcasting to cable head ends.

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