Placing Landline Calls via Skype, Viber, and WhatsApp soon to Become a Reality
BENGALURU: In the contemporaneous tech-paced world, everybody is completely relying on the extensive potential of instant messaging apps because of the enticing range of features and the ease of use these apps showcase. The most popular instant messaging apps on the list include WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, and more. Users of these apps will be psyched to hear that Government is planning to integrate these services with the telecom operators in the country as stated by a ZeeNews report.
You might consider it a slightly expensive affair to call landlines using your mobile device. But, with this move, users will be facilitated with capability to make VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) based calls to landlines using apps like Skype, Viber, and WhatsApp, without any added charges. WhatsApp has existed as the most popular online messaging service in India and around the globe, ever since the introduction. Skype also surfaces as the most widely used app that allows users to make video calls across the world with anyone, at anytime.
As far as reports suggest, an inter-ministerial panel of the government has supposedly given clearance for the integration of these services through an interconnect agreement between ISPs (internet service providers) and telecom operators. On the same lines, government plans to introduce this exquisite, new array of services to all the landline users and simultaneously the users WhatsApp, Skype and Viber app on the mobile devices.
VoIP enable users to call other people over the internet, without the need for any offline telephone network. ISPs usually partner with telcos to provide related calling facilities across the internet. VoIP calls come handy when you run out of credit and internet is all there is at your disposal. There is no limitation to the range of applications this integration will offer. Think about it, you are not in the country and you have to make this international call back home and suppose there is no internet access to where you want your call to be placed. What could you possibly do to help the situation? When we look from an application perspective, with the unification of this service, this situation can be dealt with, by placing VoIP calls directly to a landline using your internet service. This service is pretty analogous to the online to offline model, what Google Voice does in the US.
The calls are expected to have considerably lower charges, to be billed in relation to the internet data used. This might also allow customers to make calls over Wi-Fi networks, without the need for cellular data. We might be looking at a breakthrough in the mobile industry, spurring landline calls and ushering the trend back which has just witnessed decline since the advent of cellular phones.
Government is already making moves to deliberate and decide on the prices and termination fees. This will enable subscribers to place calls on the landline or mobile networks of any service provider ranging from MTNL or BSNL’s fixed lines to the mobile numbers on Airtel, Vodafone or Idea Cellular. There is no concrete news so far to when this feature will be accessible to customers, but considering the current pace of technology and its implementation, we are not far from using it in the real-time.
