Webex Calling supports multi-national companies and distributed teams with branches in India

Cloud calling is an important tool for companies embracing digital transformation to meet new requirements for hybrid work. Cloud calling offers superior collaboration capabilities, simpler deployments, and powerful analytics tools – often at a lower cost than premises-based solutions.

India is among many countries undergoing digital transformation. It is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, and a strategic location for many multinational corporations. Cloud calling is particularly well suited for India’s large Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, which requires efficient collaboration between globally distributed teams.

India has unique regulatory requirements for IP telephony

Until recently, India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) made distinctions between domestic and international Other Service Providers (OSPs), which made it difficult for domestic OSPs to service the Indian market since they could not use services hosted from data centers outside India.

Additionally, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) prohibits the use of Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony for toll bypass (avoiding or bypassing long-distance toll charges). This is a key challenge for international cloud calling providers that plan to offer service in India, because it requires that the local PSTN is used when connecting calls outside the enterprise.

Cisco and Webex Calling solve India’s PSTN challenge

Cisco has innovated continuously to support our customers with offices in India. Cisco customers using Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) for their on-premises deployments are already using logical partitioning to comply with toll bypass regulations for their offices in India.

Webex has also been quick to adapt to changes in Indian regulations. When the Indian DoT eased regulations for international OSPs in 2020, we announced Webex Calling and Webex Contact Center offers for International Business Process Outsourcing customers in India, which enables these businesses to utilize the power of cloud calling and cloud contact center to better serve their clients.

Webex Calling now offers service in more than 85 countries/regions around the world

Distributed teams across India get the cloud calling support they need

We are now taking the next step by enabling Webex Calling to support multinational corporations with offices in India that are required to be connected to the PSTN. Webex Calling enables these customers to easily implement location-based policies that comply with toll bypass regulations by routing long distance and international PSTN calls through a local PSTN connection. OSP customers with agents working from home and connected to their company’s network using a VPN can connect to the PSTN and handle inbound and outbound calls from international clients. Users without a VPN connection can use the ”Extend and Connect” feature in Webex Calling here for calling PSTN users. The solution also enables IT administrators to download call records to meet audit compliance requirements.

We are excited about the new Webex Calling analytics that gives administrators meaningful insights into calling interactions with locations in India. The calling data is available on the Media Quality dashboard in near real-time that makes it easy for administrators to monitor the call quality experience and factors that shape it.

With these policy controls in place, organizations can expand Webex Calling to branches in India and be confident that they are in compliance with local regulations. Keeping pace with these regulatory requirements, combined with the powerful enterprise calling features of Webex Calling, provide enterprises and contact center customers with a comprehensive and flexible cloud calling solution that’s available in over 85 countries around the world.

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