MUMBAI, India -- When a father sitting in Mumbai uses the Internet to speak to his son in the United States, the pleasant elderly man is breaking the law.
Internet telephony and even voice messaging are banned here. The Indian government-run Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), a telecommunications monolith that earned $1.5 billion last year, has a complete monopoly over international calls.
It handled more than 2.6 billion minutes of international telephony last year, and 80 percent of its revenue comes from overseas calls. It fears that rampant use of Internet telephony through sites such as MSN, Dialpad and Mediaring would eat into its vast resources.
While VSNL wants to make money, the people whom it was meant to serve are annoyed and feeling they are being put in an uncomfortable position. A middle-aged mother in Mumbai, who has a pregnant daughter in Chicago, said, "Phone is so expensive that I am always in a hurry to end the conversation. It's very tempting to use the Net, but I have to go through the discomfort of being aware that I am doing something unlawful."
She doesn't have to go through the guilt anymore because VSNL has, for the last three weeks, blocked access to the telephony facilities of various sites at its national gateway. So she couldn't make an illegal phone call if she wanted to.
"VSNL, being a government body, has the right to block a site's specific facility like, say, international telephony, at the national gateway," said Manisha Arora, an attorney who deals with such issues. "But while you cannot make an international call anymore to the U.S. on sites like Dialpad, they haven't blocked voice messaging on instant-messaging sites. So, if you have a microphone and a speaker, you can have a voice chat. But that too is not legal."
Many law-abiding Indians use voice messaging because they don't see why they should submit to VSNL's desire for a monopoly.
"I understand that VSNL wants to make money, but its monopoly is ridiculous," said Punit Gandhi, a filmmaker. "Why should a tax-paying individual like me have to commit a crime to realize my right to access a service that's cheaper than the existing one? VSNL can continue to block access, but I will keep trying."
VSNL's ban on Internet telephone use and even voice messaging is based on the archaic Indian Telegraph Act of 1885.
The Act calls for a punishment of 50 rupees (just over $1) to the offender. That's about the rate that VSNL charges per minute for a call to the United States.
"We have no means to check the rampant use of Internet telephony (and voice messaging) by individuals sitting at home," said K.P. Tiwari, chief general manager of VSNL. But he said VSNL has tried to publicize the fact that it is a crime.
"There are allegations that we have blocked sites like Dialpad: It's not true," Tiwari said. "We have only blocked the telephony access that these sites give."
He conceded that there was a lot of pressure on VSNL to shed its monopoly. "The government has promised that by April of next year the monopoly will end," he said. "Licenses will be issued to private operators."
This assumption is based on what's called the Convergence Bill that should be passed next year. But attorney Arora pointed out, "The bill doesn't specify whether Internet telephony and voice messaging will be legal. It merely says that a regulatory body will be set up."
But with the public mood overwhelmingly in favor of allowing Internet calls, there is more hope than ever that VSNL's monopoly will end.
"The fact that it's a monopoly hasn't ended all the previous times that an end was foreseen and (it) may not work this time," said Vickram Crishna, CEO of Net Radiophony India.
