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Leap of Faith

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Nothing is more alluring to enterprises than being able to tone down their

communication link to one, from the existing two-data networks and traditional

telephone lines. VoIP allows one to route voice over an existing data network,

thus helping bypass PSTN toll charges, and bringing down calling costs, along

with other benefits. Although everyone is aware of VoIP, there is still lack of

clarity and understanding of the technology. This was apparent even in the

survey carried out by IDC in which companies stated ‘not legal’ as a reason

for not using the technology before de-regulation. Most corporates assumed that

VoIP was not permitted, although all along VoIP in a closed user group (CUG) was

legal.

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In India, we will not see a complete migration to a single network because of

the ongoing regulation, barring calls from IP telephones or soft phones to

terminate on a PSTN in India from anywhere inland or overseas.

So what draws it?



So far, around 10% of Indian enterprises are already using VoIP for internal

connect between their branches and overseas offices. Shorter RoI and lowered

costs from using a single network, rate high among the reasons for having

implemented it. IDC has shown that the strongest motivator for using VoIP among

corporates is cost effectiveness, vis-à-vis other conventional modes of

communication.

The report shows that while more than half of the top corporates in the US

are not even considering implementing VoIP in their organization, 43% of Indian

corporates are considering it in the near future. One of the reasons for lower

adoption levels in the US and European countries could be because of low cost

toll structure of their PSTN networks.

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New opportunities



"As the technology has only begun to be understood and people have

started considering it presents a huge opportunity to both carriers and solution

providers," says Parijat Chakravarty, Manager, IDC. Among service

providers, Satyam enjoys the largest mind share among those considering

implementing VoIP in the near future, while a third of them are yet to decide on

a particular company.

Though Indian companies are showing a high degree of similarity with advanced

countries like the US as far as adopting a technology is concerned, there seems

to be one aspect where the difference comes. While two third of the larger

corporates in the US are not interested in outsourcing VoIP services, more than

90% of their Indian counterparts are ready to go in for outsourcing. Apparently

users have become more cautious on the cost effectiveness of any new adoption

and this could be one of the reasons for outsourcing. "The difference is

predominantly an after affect of the slowdown, which led companies to outsource

most of their operations and manage their bottom line. This study also reveals

the change in the Indian psyche which had been largely traditional," says

Parijat.

According to the report, the overall market is huge and there is an early

mover advantage here. Those that are not considering VoIP as yet, which

constitutes 55% of those surveyed, state ‘costs of implementation’ as their

strongest barrier. IDC estimates the market size for the year 2002-03 in India,

to be as large as Rs 684 crore. The opportunity is thrown open to both solution

providers like Cisco, Vocaltech, and Multitech and ISPs like Satyam and

Net4India. Satyam already occupies a 40% mind share among those considering

implementing VoIP, while the other ISP players occupy 7% each.

So given the conditions we will soon be subjected to another battle among the

players in this front. If mindsets prevail then maybe the revolution will take

longer to succeed. But as of now the bird seems poised for flight!

Radhika Bhuyan In New Delhi

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