Here is an opportunity to save anywhere between 20 and 80 per cent on your international call bills. Callback, a service offered by ONWCOM, enables you to bypass VSNL and make international calls at the cheap rates prevailing in the USA. The modus operandi is simple. Upon registering with ONWCOM, you are given a Directed Inward Dial (DID) number, which gives you access to the Callback facility. The registration process is completed when you give the telephone number from which you want to make the international calls.

Whenever you want to make an international call, all you have to do is dial you DID number, hang up after one ring and sit back.An ONWCOM computer calls you back immediately. When you pick up the receiver, you actually get the US dial tone on your phone! Any calls you make will then be charged at US rates.

Since US rates are much cheaper than VSNL's, you save considerably. No matter where you are, you can access the high quality, low-rate US telephone system -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Also the minimum billing time is 30 seconds and every 6 seconds after that. Unlike some other systems, you won't be paying on a per-minute basis.

According to an agent of ONWCOM, a garment exporter in New Delhi has actually been using this service for more than a month now. However, there is one catch. ONWCOM accepts payments only in US dollars. Payments can be made through credit cards or bank wire transfers. The latter is possible with some India banks. Sources from Citibank confirmed that a dollar bank wire transfer can be made from a rupee account in India.

Though VSNL may raise some objections if ONWCOM's service becomes popular,there is no conceivable way in which the monopolist will be able to monitor or cut off the Callback service in India. So if you can pay in dollars, there is nothing to stop you. ONWCOM has adopted Amway's highly-successful network marketing model and is now scouting for agents in India, according to an ONWCOM agent.