Nimbuzz (News - Alert), a provider of instant messaging communications in India, is making an offer to its Indian customer base by adding VoIP to its list of services. The company hopes to score a unified license with government approval through a deal worth Rs 150,000,000 (about $2,720,000).

Right now, Nimbuzz is offering telephone-based services through an interface very similar to the one Skype (News - Alert) uses, which it calls NimbuzzOut. Its services through this interface are available to anyone around the world to call landlines all across the globe. However, India did not allow such services to unfold because of its laws on the telecom industry that benefit the current players. This is what makes the whole Nimbuzz deal so crucial.

Under the current telecom standards in India, any service provider can offer VoIP services from one Internet-connected device to another. However, transferring the call to a traditional landline is a bit trickier. This kind of process is forbidden by law as it stands right now. Of course, laws can change. New telecom laws introduced in 2012 allow VoIP services to enter the public switched telephone network (PTSN) market provided that they pay a nice hefty sum of money for the licensing fee. This isn't exactly the ideal scenario, but it's better than outright forbidding the practice. The barrier to entry isn't an obstacle for Nimbuzz, a company that has the money to invest and considers the investment worthwhile.

Here's where the legal caveat comes in: Bharti Airtel (News - Alert) and a few other telcos from India have spoken at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) last year, saying that foreign VoIP providers have been making the business of providing such services very competitive, and the least they should do for this is to pay the same rate that they did in order to enter the market. However, it seems like they should be making more of an argument against this concept, as other companies are not as affected by paying a few million dollars as home-grown Indian VoIP providers are. The large sum of money could instead remain in the pockets of India's finest VoIP companies to invest in becoming more competitive enterprises; not to mention the costs that will be passed onto the customer.