Zoom Phone service may soon be a reality in India if the company is able to get the Indian Telecom regulators nod. The US-based communications platform, has applied for permission from the Indian government to launch its phone service. Currently, the company is navigating a regulatory process to launch the service in India.
What started as a solution for continuity during the pandemic has contributed to what is now a fundamental shift in how people work, making an intuitive, scalable, and secure communications platform.
The company says it is redefining what a cloud-based business phone solution can do for an organization, with new ways to simplify the experience through new Zoom Phone features. For employees juggling calls throughout their busy workdays, it is bringing Phone and Team Chat together, so it’s easier to continuously collaborate throughout the day. For example, when working with a group of colleagues to answer calls in Power Pack—our solution for small team handling—a chat can be created as part of each queue. Additionally, users can also use one-click chat messages when they’re unable to answer calls.
Recently, the company made virtual meeting platform, Zoom Events, available in India. The software unifies team chat, meetings, and webinars into one location to make the job of web event organisers easier.
What exactly is Zoom Phone?
According to Ricky Kapur, CEO of Zoom’s Asia Pacific region,”We are developing a function called Zoom Phone, which has been immensely popular all around the world. We are navigating a regulatory process to have it launched in India.”
The company has not yet specified the exact type of licence and approvals that it needs. However, once allowed, the VoIP-based service will enable companies to make phone calls utilising the cloud-based Zoom platform.
The action is being taken as the Indian government has been pressuring over-the-top (OTT) communication providers like WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and Zoom to obtain telecom licences for offering calling services.
According to the draught Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, OTT platforms that offer telecom services should apply for a licence in the same way that telecom carriers do. In September 2022, Cisco’s Webex became the first such OTT player to be granted a telecom licence in India.
Even though the Covid-19 pandemic’s effects are still being felt around the world, Kapur is generally optimistic about Zoom’s potential to become a standard communication tool. The video-calling platform wants to take advantage of a variety of communication options, including conference, teamwork, metaverse, and simple calling.
Recently, it also launched its virtual conference platform ‘Zoom Events’ in India. Easing the task of web events organisers, the platform integrates webinars, meetings and team chat in one platform.
Who uses Zoom Phone?
The company announced last month that we had surpassed 4 million Zoom Phone seats sold. It’s a tremendous accomplishment that speaks volumes about Zoom’s reliable cloud phone service. In fact, we sold more than 700,000 licenses in the last quarter alone, spanning global organizations in retail and financial services, healthcare, legal, technology, and more.
Quick backstory: Zoom started with Zoom Phone in January 2019 because we saw an opportunity to provide a cloud business phone solution that is as simple, reliable, and easy to use as our video platform. Over the past few years, we’ve focused on creating a phone solution that’s easy enough for small and midsize businesses to use and deploy and has all the advanced capabilities large multinational organizations require to support global users.
Zoom introduces Zoom Mail and Calendar
Zoom has taken another step forward to help users seamlessly access the tools they need directly in the easy-to-use Zoom app. With Zoom Mail and Calendar Clients (beta), users will get even more communication and collaboration capabilities in Zoom One and reduce the “toggle tax.” Users will be able to work more efficiently, quickly access their communications, and easily schedule and join meetings–all from Zoom!
The Zoom Mail and Calendar Services (beta) are targeted at small-to medium-business customers who particularly value email privacy. The Zoom Mail Service will provide end-to-end-encrypted email when messages are sent directly between active Zoom Mail Service users, and the Zoom Calendar Service will include an appointment booking feature, an easy way for participants to select an available time to meet on Zoom.
