Government may take final decision today to allow unrestricted Internet telephony in the country amid stiff oppositions from various telecom services providers. Telecom Commission, the decision-making body for telecommunications, is meeting on Monday to discuss the matter.

Internet telephony would allow customers to make cheap STD and local calls from computers to mobile phones, eroding dominance of telecom companies in the domestic market.

Earlier, during the last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had recommended to allow full fledged Net Telephony by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country. Currently, Indian norms allow calls from PC to PC only within the country. However, international calls can be made from PC to mobile, using Net Telephony.

The Telecom Commission can also asked telecom service providers to offer more freedom to customers for making long distance calls by allowing other operators to sell their cards directly to consumers to make ISD and STD calls using network of other operators.

It would result in reduction in tariffs due to competition between different telecom players. People in other countries are already enjoying cheap long distance calls as customers are allowed to choose their operators for making ISD and STD calls.