Ringo today alleged that telecom operators including Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular are not providing interconnections to VMobi to launch its Internet telephony services.
Ringo has obtained the technology and licenses for the Internet telephony service over six months ago.
The company believes that Internet telephony can reduce cost of telephony to one third or even lower. Internet telephony offers benefits such as simultaneous data transmission, HD voice, video calls as well as Wi-Fi calls.
Ringo’s new call flow makes use of the Internet or the phone’s data connection to allow a user to make calls to anyone anywhere in the country over regular Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) lines.
VMobi Solutions has Access licenses for the Mumbai circle with other circles in the pipeline, National Long Distance Operator (NLDO), and International Long Distance Operator (ILDO) under the recent Unified License since February 2016 from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
Indian consumers are not enjoying the benefits of Internet telephony because telecom players have neither launched Internet telephony, nor permitted other operators to launch the same.
“By failing to provide an Interconnection agreement or points of interconnect, these companies are making it difficult for us to do business,” said Bhavin Turakhia, founder and CEO of Ringo.
VMobi says these telecom operators have made repeated attempts to restrict the company’s scope of service and prevent the launch of Internet telephony by including clauses in the agreements with VMobi.
VMobi has also approached TRAI to request assistance in obtaining an interconnection point and a non-discriminatory Interconnection agreement for both NLDO and Access services, on similar lines to those provided to other services providers.
