Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Surana forays into Net telephony

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD March 30. City-based Surana Telecom will have the distinction of becoming the first Internet service provider (ISP) to offer Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) through its customer premises equipment (CPE) under the brand name of `Surana netFONE.' The service will be launched by the Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, here on Monday.

The service would be available for commercial use immediately, Narendra Surana, Managing Director, Surana Telecom, said at a press conference here on Saturday where its VOIP package was demonstrated. The company had been working on the package through tie-ups with other players on Internet telephony, and is now ready to offer the services, he said.

Surana netFONE allows users to make international calls at extremely low prices without transmission delay, using the tie-up of Grand Atlantic Corporation for supply of CPE and technical support. While the netFONE cost is Rs. 12,000, user charges are tentatively put around Rs. 500 per month (for Internet connection), and customers will have to take a pre-paid card of various denominations.

Under the new telecom policy, ISPs are permitted to process and carry voice signals with effect from April 1, provided they have amended their ISP agreement to include VOIP.

The CPE is similar to a phone with inbuilt features of a personal computer, like digital signal processor, random access memory (RAM), basic memory, modem and embedded software.

It eliminates the need for a personal computer or logging to any website (no need for STD/ISD connection) and operation is like a normal telephone (at the user end). It routes the calls through the Internet and international gateways to the destination like the US for as economical a price as Rs. 4.38 to Rs. 5.63 per minute to various parts, against Rs. 48 per minute now on phone, Mr. Surana said.

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