India on Voip

Many of you might have read in news if ever interested in India Telecom Market that Mtnl has launched voip service in Delhi. Voip service was available before also however was moslty on dialer based platform while this one is sip based that is you do not need a pc for usage. Thus overcoming the major roadblock for usage of voip as pc penetration is quite low in India.

This could be a giant step in free voice calls as in India free local landline calls regime is still non prevalent. Mtnl said it will provide voip ata or adapters on rental basis and also on one time fees of as low as 1000Rs. While it need to seen that these ata are locked or configurable to any other provider still the cost of device is quite reasonable.

This sip based voip call was already being provided by WorldCom, AnyUserIndia and Net4India however all of them are small Isps with subcriber base not worth to mention. Mtnl on other hand has is leader in fixed line and broadband market of Delhi and Mumbai with subsriber base of more than 4 million FixedLinePhone and 5lakh Broadband customers. It clearly has niche in voip market and soon it would be joined by its sister concern Bsnl(service the rest of India except Delhi and Mumbai). Both of them with substantial marketing budget would make Indians aware of voip services which they think is limited to Yahoo/Msn/Skype only.

There are two plans launched currently Plan A (VoIP400) and Plan B (VoIP200) with 800 minutes SIP-SIP Calls free and 400 minutes SIP-SIP Calls free respectively. These plans are limited on number of sip-sip calls which are mostly offered free in global voip market. Also you are limited to voip2voip and international calls only as the current Indian regulation does not allow voip calls to be terminated domestically it need to come via international long distance provider with all the termination charges to be paid thus eroding the voip cost advantage moreover dids or incoming numbers can’t be availed on a voip line. This may be a major drawback for voip penetration however we hope that in future when voip demand picks up this regulation might be relaxed.

Everyone asks whether is it legal to use Voip in India. Well surely it is and so are many people using it.

However still one condition is attached to use voip legally in India that is you can not connect your voip line directly to the pstn or cellular line of India (it’s need to come via International gateway for which Isd operators are allowed those mostly being large telecom networks) whether this voip line is via pc or via Ata(voip adapter) or any other device.
So that means a good news that we could use Voip to get connected.

Well there are three type of voip category to be considered for voip

1) We all know this one and have mostly used this way of voip. In this category comes pc2pc calling many popular service provider like yahoo messenger, Google talk , Skype, Msn and Indiatimes chikka , Rediff bol have this feature. All of them could be used for pc to pc calling which require pc on both side.

2) You may use same softclient based service to make calls to pstn and cell networks yahoo, msn and Skype provide these services (require Credit card or paypal account) also you could add to them India based provider like anyuserindia, bolanmol(mtnl), sify’s way2talk, tata indicom’s, bsnl’s service and many more from mostly India based Isp’s. Main adavantage of these isp provider is that you don’t require Credit card or paypal just buy a prepaid card from local shop and start calling.

3) This is where voip may implies in future. Here computer may not be required(just for one time configuration or trouble shooting) all you need is a broadband connection (128k recommended minimum 64k both up and down speed.) and a voip adapter or ATA. You could think of your Ata as an another softphone working without pc however connected to your normal pstn(telephone or pots) instrument not headphone. Most commonly used ata nowadays is Linksys pap2. Other than calling any pstn/cell line or even another ata you could also have your own normal pstn number(called DiDs) from any country of the world on this Voip adapter…so you have a number in same area of you friends’s and he could ring you at cost of a local call irrespective of your location.

All you need to do is buy this ata available from 2000Rs(50$) onwards on ebay.in or a local store along with a minimum 128k broadband connection. Next you need is to search for a Voip Service provider(VSP) online which provide you the sip settings that could be put on the Voip adapter these vsp would charge you according to the destination called .
Vsp are mostly country specific and provide good deals for generally one or two countries. You could use more than one vsp and configure your dial plan according to the country code dialled. Most known vsp nowadays is from Betamax group like voipstunt.com which provide list of destination(mostly landlines) to be called for free for 120days on recharge of 10.5Euros.

Also voip calls within same vsp are always free without any recharge or payment required. Like if i have one of my voip adapter connected in new york and another one in Delhi and both of them are subscribed to same vsp then call from one ata to another ata are absolutely free without any payment or recharge required. Here it may be noted that calls get chargeable in voip only when it has to travel through a pstn or cell network which charge vsp for terminating calls in there network.

With availablity of broadband in every remote corner of India for less than 250Rs($6) getting connected overseas would be much easier and ofcourse cheaper.

Go to the configuration page of your voip ata and login to admin account then to advanced Setting and next to regional tab………
Fill in the below settings these settings apply for Mtnl/Bsnl India

Acceptance tone : 400@-19;10(1./4./1)
Busy tone : 400@-19;10(0.75/0.75/1)
Conjestion tone : 400@-19;10(0.25/0.25/1)
Dial tone : 400@-19,25@-19;10(*/0/1+2)
Special dial tone : 400@-19;10(2.8/0.2/1)
Holding tone : 400@-19;10(0.25/0.25/1,/0.25/3.25/1)
Intrusion tone : 400@-19;10(0.15/4.85/1)
Refusal tone : 400@-19;10(0.25/0.25/1)
Ringing tone-I (local calls) : 400@-19,25@-19;10(0.4/0.2/1+2,0.4/2.0/1+2)
Ringing tone-II (NSD/ISD calls) : 400@-19,25@-19;20(1.0/2.0/1+2)
Route tone : 400@-19;10(0.1/0.9/1)
Call waiting tone : 400@-19;10(0.2/0.1/1,0.2/7.5/1)

Hope it works!

Pap2 is the most common & widely used
model available in the market.

50% of the mtnl/bsnl connections have Utstarcom UT300r2u modem.

Step By Step Configuration

1) Test your connection speed , latency & jitters at
testyourvoip.com

2) UT300r2u—LAN—->PAP2
UT300r2u—Usb—->Computer for internet.
**these settings are for when you are using pap2 with UT300r2u without any other external router.

3) Most connections work with PPPOE mode which you cud check in modem by going to 192.168.1.1. Ensure it work on pppoe which means automatic dialing.

4)When connected as shown in step 2 check whether
power & ethernet light is switched on.
If yes move to next step else goto to step 3(modem not configured properly)

5)Dial ****100# with the phone connected to pap2(any phone port). This is to find out Dhcp has been enabled or disabled.
If enabled,move to step 7 else step 6.

6)Now to enable it Dial ****101#. Enter 1 to enable.

7) Dial ****110# with the phone connected to pap2(any phone port). You will listen to the ip address of ur pap2
write it down.(# this is a temporary ip address so might or might not change everytime the router or pap2 is rebooted)

6) open ur browser and put in the ip address in browser.
Chenge the settings as required and save.

You will receive the dial tone.

Make a call