The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Voice call conferencing facility for BSNL landline users

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Monday, Dec 15, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Voice call conferencing facility for BSNL landline users

M. Dinesh Varma

CHENNAI: BSNL landline users across the State will soon be able to hold voice call conferencing with their kith and kin anywhere in the world.

The facility would make it possible for a subscriber to celebrate a birthday in the family by conferencing with his near and dear irrespective of their locations, an entrepreneur to line up his associates at short notice or a small-scale businessman to organise a sales review meeting.

Chennai Telephones on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Door Sabha Nigam Ltd (DSNL) agreeing to split the revenues equally, BSNL sources told The Hindu.

The conferencing feature, being provided as a value added service for fixed phone users, marks another first in the country for Chennai Telephones, a BSNL official said.

The DSNL has set up a centralised server at the KK Nagar exchange to manage the voice call conferencing facility. Though it is technically possible for the server to handle up to over 1,000 simultaneous calls, officials said the actual practicability of the service would be limited to about 200 callers.

The BSNL landline user will have to book a time-slot with DSNL in advance. At the allotted time, the user can call up a pre-determined number at the KK Nagar exchange to connect to the numbers he wants to bring into the conferencing.

There is also a facility to book slots within a hour of the conferencing event. However, these would be treated as “urgent” requests and relatively elevated tariffs would apply.

Tariff structure

The full tariff structure of the value added service is currently being worked out before launching the service for BSNL’s landline user base in the State.

It is understood that conferencing with anyone in Tamil Nadu can be done on local call tariffs in addition to the stipulated service fees.

The voice call conferencing charges—available on an opt-in basis for users---would be included in the monthly telephone bill with the break-up details.

BSNL has an estimated 10 lakh landline connections in Chennai Telephones Circle and about three times that number under the Tamil Nadu Telecom Circle.

Such a conferencing facility was at present limited to mobile users. However, mobile users could conference with a maximum of six contacts.

Already, the two telecom entities had tied up to provide a similar facility to large corporates.

The decision to extend the facility to low and medium end users is also seen as a measure of reviving dwindling patronage for the landlines.

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