The topic “Egypt bans VoIP services from operators such as Skype” in BBC News make me wonder why Egypt has to ban the helpful service like voice over internet protocal (VoIP) services provided by Skype and other providers on mobile phone. According to the news, free mobile calls via the internet provided by Skype or other operators have been banned by Egypt because Egyptian law states that all international call must pass through state-owned Egypte telecom (¶3). However, the ban doesn't cover vioce call performed on fixed line internet. At this weekend, Egypt's three mobile operators consist of Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalatthis are going to apply this policy. Surprisingly, Egypt is not the first country to ban this services. The United Arab Emirates just annouced earlier this month that it would not give VoIP licenses to international companies.
In my opinion, I don't understand why the Egyptian's government has launched this law. What are they concerns? Why does the government ban only services on mobile phone but not ban on the fixed line internet? What different between both of them in term of security or something else? I think VoIP services are very helpful for people because they can save a lot of money on their international calling fee. Some people have to deal about their business every time and everywhere, so it might be inconvenient for them to use these services through fixed line internet.
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References
Egypt bans VoIP services from operators such as Skype. (2010, March 24). BBC News. Retrieved March 25, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8585998.stm
I think they try to keep some businesses for their people. I mean like in Thailand, foreigners cannot do some businesses, the law protects us to have a basic career. I don't know what these career are.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that they ban only mobile phone. I think they ban every call which is not through their local company because Skype belongs to a foreign company and when people use it, the Skype's company gain much money and the local companies gain nothing. Maybe the local companies lose their customers because the Skype service charge is cheaper.
This measure might result from the economic crisis so that the government need to figure out a way to protect its business. And, as Kate said, it sounds really unreasonable to block only mobile service without blocking fixed-line internet. It, perhaps, is due to some legal aspects in their contact between the mobile phone service providers and the government.
ReplyDeleteIf another, foreign, company provides a more attractive service, is it right for the government to force its citizens to pay more for a less efficient and less desirable service only because it happens to be domestic? Shouldn't local citizens have the right to decide for themselves what factors to consider when they spend their money?
ReplyDeleteThe foreign companies are still a part of the domestic economy and they provide value as well as income and employment to the domestic economy. The argument in favour of protecting local businesses seems very weak to me. It makes everyone else in the nation pay for the poor service of the local companies. Is that what governments are supposed to do?
And if teh local company is a monopoly, it's helping some people to become very rich, like Thai laws helped Thaksin become very rich by limiting fair competition.
I don't think this is about reserving the business for local companies. Even though it provides a quite similar service, this is a new technology. When a state doesn't have a kind of business, which is needed, the government should provide advantages for companies to invest on that kind of business. They must get the most benefit for people first, meanwhile the development on that business must be done so that local companies can compete with foreingn company in the future.
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