new delhi come april 1 you need not go to your friendly neighbourhood stdisd telephone booth to call up your dear ones in far away foreign lands instead you may have the option to enter a cybercafe and talk over the net and pay as less as rs 8 rs 10 per minute better still if you have a pc and net connection at home just download any free software such as buddyphone dialpad or pc2phone and call anywhere free of cost opening up of net telephony in the country has opened up new business opportunities for isps and cyber cafes says amitabh singhal president isp association of india both isps and cyber cafes are expected to offer telephony services to subscribers and in the process offer stiff competition to international long distance service providers though isps may not be able to charge for net telephony services availed from cozy confines of ones home it does save them from legal hassles when subscribers avail of the service on the sly as is the case currently with net telephony becoming legal subscribers can now look forward to avail of telephony service with an assured measure of quality from their own isp says singhal for the hundreds of cybercafes dotting city lanes and bylanes across the country telephony services can help them to attract a new set of internet users with mushrooming of cyber cafe by the dozen competition has seen net access rates plunging from rs 50 per hour to rs 20 over the last two years says a south delhibased cyber caf owner net telephony gives one more reason for people to log on to the net and stay online for a larger duration as per industry estimates in us internet users spend on an average one hour on the net while in india the corresponding figure is just 20 minutes most cyber cafes expect to offer the service for around rs 10 per minute a ready catchment for new users are from those who throng various isd booths to make long distance calls with recent cut in stdisd tariffs revenue of most booth operators has taken a beating however stdisd booth operators need not panic most telecom industry players expect booth operators to upgrade their setup to offer net telephony services as well computer hardware manufacturers feel that one indirect impact of lifting the ban on net telephony could be to pep up pc sales in the country points out vinnie mehta president manufacturers association for information technology internet is one of the key drivers of pc sales over 60 per cent of pcs sold in the country come with net connection net telephony makes the internet more attractive and gives an added incentive to people to buy a pc pc sales in the country has been sagging with 16 million pcs expected to be sold in 200102 aprilmarch as compared to over 18 million units in the previous financial year another side effect of