Cheap voice over IP is making a significant dent in Telecom Egypt’s voice business. The state-owned telco posted its 2009 revenues last week, which included a 13% drop from the year prior. For Telecom Egypt, VoIP was the main culprit for its voice losses, so much so that Egypt banned mobile international calls made through VoIP for all three of its carriers. Apparently, under the new law, fixed VoIP calls are still permissible, but the ban does apply to the use of Skype over the mobile Web. Skype’s crying foul. Should regulators be able to make that decision?
Skype’s stance is that the choice should be left up to its customers. Reuters writes:
Skype, which has more than 500 million users worldwide, said in an e-mail statement that it was “seeking clarification” from the regulator about the reported ban.
“In general, we believe it should be up to consumers, not regulatory authorities, to choose the winners and losers in the communications space. That is what happens in competitive markets,” it said.
The ban applies to Egypt’s three mobile operators — Mobinil, Etisalat Egypt and Vodafone Egypt — offering Internet access for computers via USB and other mobile modems, as well as mobile handsets. It does not apply to fixed lines.
Connected Planet’s take, Sarah Reedy:
As a state-run telco, and also one operating in a country that closely monitors mobile traffic, maybe the stakes are different for Telecom Egypt and its customers. But instituting a ban like this certainly raises some questions. First and foremost, questions over what exactly the ban applies to. TechCrunch names a few potential gray areas: Laptops running on 3G? A mobile phone on a Wi-Fi connection connected to a DSL line? Or as one creative commenter asked, “What if I’m connected to a landline but I VPN over to a router that uses 3G ultimately for Internet/VoIP traffic?” It’ll be interesting to see how the regulators respond to Skype.
Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Verizon Wireless and Skype announced yesterday at CTIA that their joint Skype mobile client will be available to select BlackBerry and Android devices running on the VZW network on Thursday. At the press conference announcing the news, John Harrobin, VZW senior vice president of digital media and marketing, told attendees that VZW wasn’t worried about dilution from a wireless ARPU standpoint. A difference between Verizon and Telecom Egypt, besides the ownership, is that VZW has the control in its relationship with Skype. Voice ARPU won’t go down because voice plans are still required. Had Telecom Egypt instituted a similar stipulation, it wouldn’t be lost in the gray right now.
That’s our take on this. Let us know what you think in the comments section below:
Interesting how all these big guys are blocking VOIP instead of embracing it. Skype for VZ is limited too. But check out http://www.callarc.com they are offering free international voip calls.
It\\\’s simple NOTHING is free, someone or thing has to pay for the power and infrastructure. The Skype’s of the world can only ride on the free bandwagon for so long, until there is no money to pay for operate and maintain the networks. All that is going to happen is the price of Internet access is going to increase for everyone so that some may get their FREE VoIP service.
The price of reinforcing this law in Egypt might be more then the profits gained from International calls.
Egypt is making the same mistake most other GCC and ME markets have made – regulating VoIP.
I know that the 1legcall mobile dialer is becoming more and more popular in Egypt. It’s already gained a substantial chunk of the market share in other ME regulated markets like Oman, Saudi and the UAE.
Article on 1legcall. FYI
http://1legcall.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/1legcall-mobile-voip-dialer-compatible-with-34-nokia-models/#comments