Thread: Emergency number calling should not be a hitch for Internet Telephony in India

Recently there has been a series of communication between TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) and Department of Telecommunications, Government of India about the formulation of regulations for Internet Telephony or VoIP in the country.


As is common with bureaucracy, such correspondences trigger a series of communications between the two parties and the same happened with TRAI and DOT regarding some issues like level playing field, numbering and the emergency number calling. TRAI has replied back to DOT maintaining its initial stand on these issues; which any and every regulator would do.



The TRAI has recommended realistically for issues arising out of Internet Telephony that will give a room for growth for the technology and at the same time lead to a sizeable market of Internet Telephony in India. The philosophy of the recommendations has been to aim at two things - designing a framework for the technology and giving the technology enablers a free hand which is very crucial particularly in the initial stages of the technology to result in a mature market. Only by showing some flexibility more and more players will dive into the market which is always beneficial for the end users.


Among the recommendations, the regulatory authority has recommended that the decision of facilitating emergency number calls over the Internet phones should be left to the service providers. It should not be made mandatory.


This debate over emergency number calling over VoIP networks has been there globally. Most of the regulators concluded that this decision be left over with the service providers as VoIP is primarily an alternative telephone line or a second telephone connection with the users. It is essential that users must be able to call in case of emergency and for that they could use their primary PSTN line.


India is likely to follow the universal trend of Internet Telephony being an alternative route and it will be a secondary line with the users. If not a fixed line, the users will surely be having a mobile phone over which they could make emergency calls.


Another interesting phenomenon is about the level of service offered over emergency numbers and then the usage of emergency numbers. The emergency number service in India only allows users to call for police, fire services and the ambulance services depending on the requirement. No advanced services are offered such as geographic identification of the caller to facilitate prompt services. A caller has to make a number of calls before pin pointing the right person for help. It is not an automatic system like in most of the mature telecom markets. Most of the times making a call is of no use and the person has to use other methods even in the case of emergencies for the callous attitude of the authorities who are approached for the help.


India is a security sensitive country and it is very important to identify the location of the caller for various reasons. In other countries the advanced emergency number call systems help authorities like police and secret services to find out the location of the caller. But in India, location is only ascertained after intervention of the service providers. One very useful tool for this has been CLIP that lets the other party know about the number of the caller. Once the E.164 numbering is followed for Internet Telephony in India (as recommended by TRAI), having CLIP for Internet Telephones will not be an issue and the service providers will have to capability of tracking the callers.


With this scenario, it seems that TRAI has aptly recommended that enabling emergency number calling be the discretion of the service provider. There is no reason why DOT should make it an issue for Internet Telephony to start in India. Once the Internet Telephony is operated in a controlled manner through these service providers, it will be as easy for the authorities to track the calls and callers in case of any need as is with the regular PSTN and mobile telephony. Users will be able to make emergency calls when needed through their primary lines and the callers can be traced through CLIP and other such facilities with the intervention of the service providers.


Over the past few years, TRAI has been among very few regulators who are encouraging emerging technologies than finding out impediments in making them a reality. Be it conditional access, IPTV, DTH, WiFi or the broadband services, TRAI has always tried to develop an atmosphere which would incubate the technology and service leading to the maturity of the telecom market in the country.

Great Info