Internet calls to remain on hold

[damien89]

There are no plans to lift the ban on internet phone calls in the UAE, the telecom regulatory authority said yesterday.
Senior officials at Etisalat and the Telecoms Regulatory authority (TRA) confirmed that services that utilise Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, technology, offered by websites such as Skype, are currently illegal and this is unlikely to change in the near future.

“As we stand today, VoIP is illegal until decided otherwise,” said Mohammad Gheyath, the manager of technical affairs at the TRA.

Residents in the UAE have complained on blogs and in local newspapers about the banning of Skype, but they should be aware that the service has been deemed illegal by the government, not Etisalat or the TRA, Gheyath said.

“From seeing the problems of regulating this service in surrounding countries, we do not want to rush and do anything we regret.

“I cannot say when we will have good news about VoIP,” he added.

However, Etisalat is currently planning for the provi sion of internet calls when and if it is made legal. “Going forward, I see VoIP will be a reality. We will wait for the TRA to put in the policies, but VoIP is part of the technical roadmap,” said Ahmed Julfar, the Chief Operating Officer at Etisalat.

Julfar and Gheyath were speaking on Al Majlis, a new show hosted by Mustafa Alrawi and broadcast every Thursday from 8am to 10am on Dubai Eye 103.8, about the policy of blocking sites and services deemed “inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the UAE”.

Despite repeated requests, representatives of the UAE’s second telecoms operator Du were unable to appear on the show.

But there was good news for people frustrated by the blocking or filtering of the internet, which has meant that they cannot access popular sites such as youtube.com and myspace.com because of the content available on them.

Both Etisalat and the TRA are reviewing the process in an effort to prevent “over-blocking“ of sites that have been misclassified by Smartfilter, the software used in the filtering process. “We are reviewing the categories and the classification of sites… people will notice the change. We want to make sure there is no overblocking,” Julfar said.

“There are different ways of filtering. Something we have put forward… for certain customers… is to give control to the consumer. But this is up to the authorities to decide,” he added.

The policy of filtering the internet has been put in place by the government, but before the TRA was formed the responsibility fell to Etisalat to enforce it.

The purpose is to protect “people in the country, especially children” from obscene or dangerous content. And the Dubai Media and Internet City freezones, previously exempt from the filtering process, will now fall under the TRA’s authority.

The regulator is currently discussing ways to apply web surfing controls in the freezones without interfering with how businesses operate.

“We are currently working to come to a common understanding with the Freezone authorities that when the TRA implements the internet content filtering policy, it will apply to the whole country,” Gheyath said.

Source: Emirates Today

bad, bad news about the proxy affecting the "free zones" too...

[FREKI]

I don't really get this... Dubai seems very progressive and modern - and does it best to attract tourists... so why again is the internet sensored/blocked...?

With all these different nationalities ( workers as well as tourists ) around it's imposible to keep stuff secret - and why even try to begin with?

It's really odd if you ask me, and must be a pain in the neck for people living there!

[smussuw]

most of the things blocked arent related to politics *secret stuff* but then again it is getting stupid. The Technology and Media freezone have always had the internet open 100%.

[Naz UK]

The blocking of VoIP is not about censorship (like the blocking of pornographic sites etc), it is about not creating competition for Etisalat, which would lose millions of Dhs in lost international call revenue... they are trying to adopt a system which would still secure some revenue for them. That's all there is to it.

[dubaiflo]

does anyone know if DU will be ISP in the future?

[Naz UK]

Yes. They are also heavily involved in developing Dubai's WiMAX network, for long-distance wireless internet access.

[ragga]

The thing I have a MAJOR problem with is, I am in a freezone for now (jumeirah islands) internet run by dubai internet city, where it says VOIP IS LEGAL, you can call Tecom all day long and they will tell you its legal, however when you ask them why it has been banned, they have no idea...

anyways the start of that online petition was done by 2 others and myself. The banning of voip on etisalat connections I can understand, but blocking it in a freezone is RIDICULOUS.

[smussuw]

If u understand banning VOIP in Etisalat then u should with TECOM.

The reason why TECOM (du) blocked it is because TRA asked them to and blocking websites that contradict with "the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates" LOL are on their way.

Although the communication minsiter said that the freezones will not have anywebsites blocked