Estel to launch Internet telephony services

BANGALORE: Estel Communications, a JV between Estel group of India and Fusion

Telecom of USA, has announced to launch its Internet Telephony service in India

this week. Using this service anybody can make an international call either from

any PC or IP telephone in India to any phone (mobile or fixed) anywhere in the

world. The service is extremely flexible and user friendly and works from any

windows based PC or IP phone connected to the Internet via any ISP.

"Our IP telephony services would be able to provide users with ‘near

toll quality’ service because we have one of the most reliable IP backbone

network in the country. We are the first and only IP carrier in India to own and

operate an end to end network connecting India to Western Europe and North

America. Our interconnects with global data & voice carriers give us the

ability to provide data services to over 155 plus locations in the world and

voice services to every country & city in the world. This gives us the added

advantage of providing dedicated bandwidth that is very essential for

VOIP", said Estel Communications managing director, Raj Hajela.

Estel provides both private label services to other ISPs who can brand and

sell it to their customers and retails IP telephony services under its own brand

called Net VOIZ. Private label services are customized for each ISP customer.

Both private label and Net VOIZ services are available under two quality

variants — Standard and Gold.

Gold services utilize Estel’s proprietary technology and tier IP network to

provide "near toll quality" services to corporate customers and cyber

cafes connected directly to Estel or Estel’s partner ISPs.

Standard services can be used by any consumer connected to the Internet via

any ISP. All Estel’s Internet Telphony services are sold and used via prepaid

calling cards. The consumer buys a prepaid calling card from a retail outlet,

logs on to the website URL given on the back of the card where an online dialer

is available. They can enter the PIN and destination number on the dialer and

uses a headset (or PC microphone and speakers) to carry out their conversation.

Net VOIZ is initially available in the denominations of Rs. 100, 250, 500

& 1,000. Customized denominations for large customers are also available.

Estel’s standard services will be priced between Rs 7-9 per minute for

consumers for calls to USA and

other developed markets. Prices for other destinations will vary based on

cost of terminations. Estel owns and operates an end to end IP network

connecting India to Europe and North America, with its own IP nodes in Delhi,

Hyderabad, Bangalore, London & New York. Estel currently provides Internet

backbone services, high-end corporate Internet services and IPVPN services.