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UAE: still on hold
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
It looks like voip internet phone users in the UAE will have to keep on waiting for voip to be legal again. Rumors spread last month that a reversal of the 2005 voip ban was imminent; however the UAE's Minister of Communications (Saeed Mansouri) now says they have no plans to allow third-party voip service in the United Arab Emirates. Citing concern about voip's potential to disrupt, Mansouri said that, "Both du and Etisalat will be badly affected by the introduction of this service here. This is a decision that has to be decided by them, the government and the users.” Etisalat and du are the local telecom corporations serving residents in the UAE.
The most consumers can hope for, at this point, is that the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) approves authorized rollouts of du and Etisalat flavored voip--which is bound to be significantly more expensive than regular voip. How can the UAE work so hard to position itself as a business-friendly, modern region and then do things like block voip? Perhaps their next move will be to bring back those wonderful string and cup phones.
