Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal Thursday asked DoT Secretary R
Chandrashekhar to examine the possibility of extending MTNL's new video
telephony service to mobile phones even as he said Internet telephony
will not happen immediately.
"I requested Secretary (R Chandrashekhar)
just now, connect it (MTNL video telephony service) to mobile phones,"
Sibal said while launching MTNL's video telephony service which is based
on broadband technology.
The state-run telecom company launched
the service to make calls through MTNL land line or fiber network. MTNL
Chairman and Managing Director AK Garg said "people will not require
personal computers (PC) to make these video calls".
Present rules
in India allow people to make voice and video calls from a computers to
another computer only. Making calls from computers to mobile phones is
not allowed.
At present, there are VoIP (voice over Internet
Protocol) applications like Skype, Gtalk, Yahoo from which Internet
users can make video calls from their personal computers to another PC.
Speaking
to reporters after the event Sibal, however, said opening of Internet
telephony "is part of a policy, it is not going to happen immediately,
it will take some time".
Telecom Minister further suggested MTNL
and BSNL to make provisions for connecting video telephony devices to
television sets so that people can see larger image of persons they are
talking to.
The state-run telecom firm has plans to include video surveillance facility in its new services with back-up service.