Middle East Focus: Let My Phone Calls Go: Egypt Telecoms Tightens Screws on Skype………

Arabia Deserta

Let My Phone Calls Go: Egypt Telecoms Tightens Screws on Skype………

“The lobbying of the three Egyptian mobile operators, Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalat have won the most recent battle with regulators to ban the Internet phone service from 3G users and those using the mobile company’s USB Internet stick. “The ban is on Skype on mobile internet, not on fixed, and this is due to the fact it is against the law since it bypasses the legal gateway,” said Amr Badawy, the executive president of the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA). Telecom Egypt, which holds a monopoly on all international calls coming from Egypt, reported poor earnings in their most recent report this week and had pressured, in consortium with the mobile operators, to ban Skype, which they argued was being used to place calls to friends and family abroad. They were right and the government reacted. Badawy, however, did not rule out the possibility of extending the ban to other services in the future, including fixed Internet connections in people’s homes…...…”

The Middle East telecoms, charging exorbitant fees for international calls, are trying to curtail and in some cases ban Skype. There are other alternatives. They are fighting an unstoppable trend.
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