telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

business, a white route is a route where both source and destination are legal termination. This is opposed to a black route, which is a route that is illegal in both ends. Also common in telecom (especially

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

) is the term grey route, which defines a route that is legal for one country or the party on one end, but illegal on the alternative end. An example of the white/grey/black trichotomy is often seen in telecom routes from the United States to India. In India, a telecom oligopoly is granted to a few large corporations. Hence, all legal ("white") telecom traffic to the country is subject to the rates imposed by these corporations. To overcome this restriction for the purpose of achieving lower costs for consumers, and to make a profit in the process, many small parties set up

routers in homes and offices around India. Telecom traffic from other countries is sent to these VoIP routers via IP and terminated to the local Indian

PSTN The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists ...

. This process is illegal in India ("black"), but completely lawful in the USA ("white"). A route like this, white on one end and black on the other is said to be "grey".

SIM boxes

A "

SIM box A SIM box (also called a SIM bank) is device used as part of a VoIP gateway installation. It contains a number of SIM cards, which are linked to the gateway but housed and stored separately from it. A SIM box can have SIM cards of different mobil ...

" is an unofficial voice over IP gateway which uses multiple

mobile telephone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

s and

SIM card A typical SIM card (mini-SIM with micro-SIM cutout)A SIM card or SIM (subscriber identity module) is an integrated circuit (IC) intended to securely store an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number and its related key, which are u ...

s for PSTN connectivity, while connecting to the Internet by conventional means. These are normally operated clandestinely in third-world calling destinations as the "black" end of a "grey route" where conventional

private branch exchange A business telephone system is a telephone system typically used in business environments, encompassing the range of technology from the key telephone system (KTS) to the private branch exchange (PBX). A business telephone system differs from ...

lines (such as

T-carrier The T-carrier is a member of the series of carrier systems developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories for digital transmission of multiplexed telephone calls. The first version, the Transmission System 1 (T1), was introduced in 1962 in the Bell Syst ...

primary rate interface The Primary Rate Interface (PRI) is a telecommunications interface standard used on an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) for carrying multiple DS0 voice and data transmissions between the network and a user. PRI is the standard for pro ...

) are not available to VoIP operators due to a hostile local regulatory environment. In India, for instance, an Internet Service Licensee is not permitted to have PSTN/PLMN connectivity as voice communication to and from a telephone connected to PSTN/PLMN and following

E.164 E.164 is an international standard (ITU-T Recommendation), titled ''The international public telecommunication numbering plan'', that defines a numbering plan for the worldwide public switched telephone network (PSTN) and some other data netw ...

numbering is prohibited in India. By using licensing restrictions and regulations to ensure that the interconnection between the PSTN/PLMN network and Internet is not permitted, the government in India delivers a lucrative monopoly to International Long Distance (ILD) service providers licensed under Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act as the only carriers officially allowed to carry international long distance traffic into India.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Black And Grey Routes Telephony Voice over IP

SIM boxes

See also

References