Airtel stands by decision to charge extra for VoIP calls

New Delhi: Standing by its decision tocharge extra for services like Skype and Viber, telecom major , Bharti Airtel said allowing VoIP calls on mobiles  without additional charges was not a tenable business.        

The company defended its position despite Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad saying yesterday that the government would look into the matter. He incidentally today tweeted a news report in this regard. Sources at Telecom Regulatory Authority of India also said that they are examining new tariff schemes of Airtel. Stating that it has invest over Rs 140,000 crore in   rolling out telecom network over the past years, the firm said it will continue to "charge separately for VoIP services".        

The VoIP charges are over and above the fee that users pay Airtel for using data services. "However, in line with our philosophy of putting our customers above all else, we are committed to making VoIP services extremely affordable and attractive by ensuring adequate minutes for a very small charge on VoIP," Airtel said in a statement.        

Bharti Airtel has tweaked its mobile internet usage and said that VoIP calls service will not be included in internet schemes that it offers and will be charged at standard data rates of 4 paise per 10 KB on 3G network and 10 paise per 10KB on 2G network.Based on standard rates, usage of each GB of data for   VoIP on 3G network will cost about Rs 4,000 and while the same   on 2G network will cost about Rs 10,000.

As per estimates, usage of 1 GB data can entail voice calls of about 10 hours, depending on various factors  including speed and network strength, while data usage could   be much higher for the video calls. Skype and other such apps have gained traction in the recent past mostly because of such services being offered for  free and users only pay for the data usage, mostly bundled with the internet package paid for them.        

The company announced new schemes costing Rs 75 under which a customer can make 200 to 250 minutes long VoIP calls. The scheme will have 75 MB Internet usage limit. At this rate, 1GB will cost Rs 1,024 which company   otherwise sells for Rs 175 on 2G network and Rs 249 on 3G network.