VoIP Legal Status Worldwide? 180
Cigarra writes "There was much public debate going on during the last several months here in Paraguay, regarding the 'liberation of Internet,' that is, the lifting of the restriction on ISPs to connect directly to international carriers. Up until this week, they were forced to hire wholesale service from the State run telco, Copaco. During the last month, when the new regulation was almost ready, the real reason supporting the monopoly made it to the headlines: Copaco would fight for the monopoly, fearing VoIP based telephony. Finally, the regulator Conatel resolved today to end the monopoly, but a ruling on VoIP legal status was postponed for 'further study.' I guess this kind of 'problem' arose almost everywhere else in the world, so I ask the international slashdotters crowd: what is VoIP's legal status in your country / state / region? How well did incumbent telcos adapt to it, and overall, just how disruptive was this technology to established operators?"
Australia (Score:2, Informative)
VoIPs becoming fairly widespread these days - many big companies especially are using it, and a growing proportion of home users.
Re:In Canada (Score:5, Informative)
South Africa had banned VoIP technology until recently. There's lots of information in this 2001 article:
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2001/0103271307.asp?A=VPN&S=VPN&T=Section&O=SBR [itweb.co.za]
Deep packet inspection used for blocking VoIP (Score:5, Informative)
A view of VoIP status in AU (Score:3, Informative)
So, in Australia, we have a few serious competitors (eg, MyNetFone),
eg, offering low-cost ATA's (1-off price to buy it of under Au$ 20)
and VoIP service plans (to anyone who knows about them) as low as
Au$ 0 (ie, FREE) each month, ie, pay only for your calls ( Au$ 0.10
for up to 2 hours in each call you make to a normal Australian land-
line; Au$ 0.15 / min for calls to Aussie mobiles); 1 DID no. incl'd.
Retailers offer higher-priced ATA's (even from same VoIP provider),
or did... Most get ATA's directly from MNF at subsidized prices.
An early "visible" if more costly provider - Engine (or similar) -
wanted you to buy an ATA for Au$ 150 or Au$ 99, a while ago, but
have realised the futility of such high prices.
Engine also charged a monthly fee (now, about Au$ 10 / mon) plus
somewhat more for calls.
MyNetFone seems to have been the most creative & versatile, eg,
offering:
- software for Nokia cell phones that enable one to make/receive
calls either paying (high prices) for cellular privider's data
or - more recently & economically - use your choice of WiFi
provider (incuding your own home / office WiFi access-point)
as the (cheaper) source of data to support your VoIP calls
- support for softphones (theirs & others)
- cheap ATA's, some with routers WiFi and/or modems, ie, a reason-
able range of ATA brands & models, ususally locked to MyNetFone
- (for business clients) IP-PBX options (see their site for details)
Their low-cost call rates applied (as above), but any cell-pro-
vider's data or other broadband data costs were - as always -
yours to bear, along with them.
--- Skype on a mobile phone or Sony PSP or computer:
Mobile carrier (Hutcheonson?) "3" has offered Skype offers a
GSM-based cellphone with facilitated, built-in Skype features;
you can see it at Skype.com or Three.com.au.
With a SkypePhone in hand (a user who within range of "3"'s
broadband network can talk to any computer or Sony PSP or Skype-
phone based Skype-user... for 4,000 minutes / mon and/or sent
up to 10,000 text messages / month (in Skype text chat mode),
for an incredibly low monthly fee, even if you add-in a fee
for the SkypePhone handset. Of course, it's Skype- (not GSM-)
voice quality. But messages sent via Skype are NOT limited to
160 characters, as SMS chunks are.
Sony's PSP 3002 (AU-version) includes both WiFi & Skype (voice
only; neither SMS (since it's NOT a GSM cellphone) nor Skype
chat-mode text messages can be sent from a PSP).
If you bought a month or (cheaper, per mon) a year Skype "sub-
scription," you get 1 or 3 DID no.'s based in your choice of
any of 30+ countries, as well as 10,000 minutes of talk-time.
So, using such a subscription, you can ring any normal landline
number - in any of the countries on the list (of 32+ lands), etc.
Of course Skype-to-Skype calls & chat messages remain free. :-)
---
In short, enough options, easy for the end-user to setup & main-
tain (ie, if s/he's a bit of a geek).
Caribbean (Score:3, Informative)
In the C&W controlled monopoly islands of the english speaking Caribbean, VOIP was always a gray area. Anyone wanting to offer VOIP services required a telco license and C&W would not sell them an internet connection, but they did not block VOIP use by users. The Governments did not have any real stance on the issue as they did not understand it. Eventually, C&W accepted the inevitable and offered their own service, known as NetSpeak, but only to private users and only tied to a hardware device.
There is a large move to VOIP by companies and now I am seeing quasi-governmental pan-caribbean agencies implementing IP PBX installations using Open Source PBX equipment. The last bastion of TDM is the hotels and I think a shift to VOIP is inevitable there also.
The incumbent Telco will likely move to entertainment and content as long distance revenue dwindles and they are stuck with the losses of maintaining low return infrastructure. They are already slimming down operations, laying off staff and becoming a sales driven company rather than an engineering company.
VOIP will remain legal and radically change the Caribbean, telcos will become content providers and TDM will fade into the past.
Re:In Australia its legal (Score:4, Informative)
In fact, many major ISPs are now offering VoIP as part of your Internet connection.
Quite a few actually give you an incentive to adopt it. E.g. My ISP, iiNet, literally doubled my already generous quota if I bundled VOIP with my connection. That was actually the only reason we got VOIP at first - it was only later that we realised how much cheaper it was.
Also, take a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOIP#Legal_Issues [wikipedia.org].
Re:In Australia its legal (Score:4, Informative)
Telstra (big bad Australian "Bell") enjoys offering low capped plans with over use charged at A$150/gb, counting uploads and downloads.
As the joke goes:
"New computer - $1200
Desk for the computer - $250
Bigpond 100Mps 200mb Cable Plan - $39.95
Using your 200mb quota + 2GB extra at $150 a gig doing VoIP - Priceless"
Telstra controls RIMs (Remote Integrated Multiplexer ~ digital loop carrier), toys with exchange rack space and does all it can to contain other ISP's.
Another fun aspect of Voip was this:
http://apcmag.com/bigpond_blocking_voip_on_new_modem.htm [apcmag.com]
In Pakistan (Score:1, Informative)
Well we here in Pakistan have had a smooth ride. We have been using VOIP for as long as we can remember and there has been no restriction that i know of .
Its another great disruptor technology IMHO.As bandwidth prices go down , better smart phones and yes MOIP technology gains ground it can give telcoms a run for their money.
Malaysia (Score:3, Informative)
Consumers are allowed to buy VoIP equipment and use it as they please. Broadband quality isn't all that great, and latency to the USA (where most providers are homed) is 250+ms, so takeup has not been huge. Skype is popular though, and USB Skype accessories are ubiquitous in computer malls and shops.
Equipment that connects physically to the telephone network requires approval from SIRIM, a regulatory agency. I have seen SIRIM-approved stickers on Digium cards, so in principle they are amenable to that sort of thing. I know of one shop that sells SPA-3000 series devices but I haven't checked whether those are officially approved or just grey-market imports.
A licence is required in order to interconnect with the PSTN and provide services to the public. However, many of the inbound international phone calls I receive here in Malaysia arrive with dubious local caller-ID, so I suspect there are a lot of termination providers doing things on the cheap, which in these parts usually means skipping the licence stuff.
In general, the government's attitude has been open or at least tolerant, and the market is slowly picking up speed. All of the major ISPs offer or plan to offer consumer VoIP service, and a small but growing number of independent operators are starting to reach out to consumers. For large businesses it has been standard practice for years.
One factor slowing the adoption of VoIP has probably been the already-low price for international calls via other means. Wholesale inbound termination is under US$0.01/minute for fixed lines, and around US$0.03/minute for mobiles. The retail cost of phone calls from Malaysia to fixed lines in US/Europe/Australia etc on my mobile is around US$0.04/minute (Digi @ RM0.13-0.18). In most countries you can't even call next door for that price; here I can call the other side of the planet.
Costa Rica / Argentina (Score:1, Informative)
I've traveled to Costa Rica and Argentina for multiple weeks and used VoIP in both those countries.
If it is illegal in Costa Rica, they certainly don't tell anyone. I stayed in private homes with DSL, not a holiday inn.
I know the state runs the telecom/DSL in Costa Rica, so while VoIP may be unknown to the average Tico, they certainly aren't blocking it. Pura Vida!
Re:In Canada (Score:3, Informative)
In theory it is free; in practice (Ontario anyways), Bell is the gate keeper. And they don't really keep their gates fixed up very well, actually the gates are more like doggie doors and you can only fit half a person through per month (then they charge you extra). There are also a few cable companies - they have garage doors, but they might only let one person in at a time. (Fortunately we still have some resellers of DSL to help out, they'll give you a few gates and generally distract the gatekeeper while you get your stuff through...though Bell is on to them and with the help of the CRTC they might just close that "hole")
Re:Australia (Score:3, Informative)
Where do you live? In the US, we have number portability.
Re:VoIP in Latin America (Score:1, Informative)
In colombia is only illegal the termination and reselling the voip service. Personal use is not illegal.