SkypeOut Rates to India - Why so high?

Hi All,

I wanted to see if some one can answer my question on why the Skype (SkypeOut) rates to India are so high. I was told that the traffic from Skype(Out) to India is not over IP all the way to India but stays over IP until about Indonesia or some place and is converted to TDM from then on, and that's why the rates don't fall to the dirt cheap level they are for some other countries.

Would appreciate some insight.

Thanks! Apurva

Reply to
apurva.pathak
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Doesn't sound right to me, maybe Skype isn't getting the rght kinds of circuits, as (IME) telecom rates to Indian call centers are essentially zero.

Reply to
William P.N. Smith

The price to terminate a call on the public switched network is probably quite high, so the call centers have leased lines into a private switch and avoid the termination fee.

I use Lingo which has pretty good international rates (zero to most of western Europe) and they charge about the same as Skype to India, between 11 and 16 cents depending on the city.

R's, John

Reply to
John L

Just for completeness, I got my question sort of answered by one of the moderators on one of the Skype fora(?)

"Skype uses gateways provided by partners to offer you skypeout calling to India. The exact location to these gateways are known only to skype staff and partners and calling rates are based on partners' offers. Because VOIP is not legal in India I'm sure no gateway is located there, thus the incomming call was converted to PSTN before India's borders.

My guess is that because voip is not legal in India partners cannot provide Skype with lower rates to India. "

Apurva

Reply to
Apu

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