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Local Government

VoIP phones make savings for Indian state

By Alice Kok | 10 March 2009

Bihar, India’s third largest state, has reportedly made cost savings from the launch of a state-wide area network (SWAN) and secretariat local area network (SecLAN) rolled out for local government officials, removing the need to pay service providers for telephone lines.

The services, which are part of the Bihar’s e-governance programme, allow a VoIP (voice over internet protocol) phone connections that cannot be tapped, while making savings for local government authorities.

Offices of ministers, departmental secretaries, district magistrates and other senior officials in the state capital have been kitted out with VoIP phones.

“We introduced this facility as part of our vision for value addition from services using SWAN and SecLAN,” said Beltron official P C Choudhary.

Beltron is the nodal agency of the state government for implementing the e-governance project in Bihar. A data centre has also been set up in Patna, Bihar’s capital, where data generated from all offices across the state are stored.

“The voice quality of these phones is very good and one does not suffer from line congestion or faulty lines while using this phone,” said Anup Mukherjee, Principal Secretary of the Rural Development Department.

However Mukherjee said that instead of seven-digit numbers, there should be abbreviated dialling to make these phones more user-friendly. He also said the inbuilt directory should be updated and numbers of district magistrates should be added to it.

Beltron is already on the case. “We are already working on a plan which would help introduction of abbreviated dialling,” Choudhary said. He also said the directory is being updated and users would soon have all relevant numbers in their phones.

The Beltron official said plans are afoot to add PRI (Primary Rate Interface) cards to these phones. This would users to make calls on other networks as well.

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