Over the top player Skype will start barring mobile and landline calls within India from November 10 which is just a few days from now. Microsoft has already posted the statement about no longer offering calls to mobiles and landlines in its support page.
There wasn’t that much said about the decision of Microsoft but it assured that only the local calling to landlines and mobiles are affected and the calls made to international numbers for free would still be available. Wi-Fi and text messaging on the over the top player will stay intact according to Microsoft.
The talks of over the top (OTT) players with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India held in August led to the decision of the Department of Telecom (DoT) to not charge extra fees on OTTs which was originally requested by the telecommunication providers. According to an official of DoT, any operator of OTT can offer free calling and texting across any telecom network in the country which security agencies are seeing as a risk.
No more Skype calling to mobiles and landlines within the country was announced just a few days after Microsoft launched the Nokia Lumia 730 in India which positioned itself as a smartphone that works perfectly for videos and calls for its partner over the top platform.
According to Internet Service Providers Association President Rajesh Chharia, its decision of blocking calls to mobile phones and landlines was welcomed by Microsoft and added that its VoIP services rules have been violated by the reputable company for a long time already. Chharia added that this move may be an indication that Microsoft is willing to oblige with the regulation of the country at last.
The government of India will block VoIP-gateway services and Skype’s barring of landline and mobile phone calls will start in November 10. The government is saying that the OTTs are bypassing the country’s telecommunication providers and robbing them of the revenue that they deserve.
We Phone app is also requested to be blocked by the Intelligence Bureau since its facilities of spoofing caller id is making it hard for many people to locate or identify the person calling them.
The famous web-based calling service Skype will stop delivering its local free calling in India in November 10. Many Skype users are unhappy about the news of the Department of Telecom but the decision is already final. What the millions of users of the service in the country are thankful of is that the decision to block the service of the popular OTT doesn’t include the calls they will make to friends and family outside of India.