HCL to launch Net phones

new delhi: soon, inexpensive phones will enable people to make cheap international calls over the internet, without the need to own a pc. these voip (voice over internet protocol) phones, to hit the indian market within a few weeks, will connect to existing phone lines and cost rs 2,000-2,500. hcl infosystems is testing the quality of the phones and is expected to market them through its retail channel.the phones will be imported from taiwan and branded as hcl. “we are currently testing these phones rigorously to avoid quality problems later. we will target a price range between rs 2,000 and rs 2,500, which will be acceptable to indian consumers,� said saurav adhikari, president of hcl infinet said. though telecom equipment vendors like cisco and ericsson, among others, also manufacture voip phones, they are priced higher at rs 12,000-16,000. for a two-way voice connection to work, a bandwidth of 24 kbps (kilo bytes per second) is essential. isps had to ensure that a minimum bandwidth of 24 kbps was available to subscribers for proper voice quality, said adhikari. in case you are using a pc, you can still browse the internet and simultaneously talk on the voip phone, although browsing would be slower. at present, a call to the us costs over rs 40 per minute, but internet telephony service providers are expected to price calls at between rs 6-8 per minute. but the quality of voice may differ substantially. voip phones can also connect to the usb port of your pc. us-based net2phone sells a device branded as yap jack and is one of the biggest player in the non-pc devices segment.