[Chapter-delegates] Proposed law to ban Skype in Russia?

[Narelle.Clark at csiro.au]

In Australia the telephony regulation requires that if a provider sells a "standard telephony service" it must comply with a range of performance standards.

In the case of Internet telephony, there are a number of services which arguably do not comply, yet as far as I know there haven't been any, or if any then not many publicised, prosecutions.

It is also my understanding that most of the telcos are migrating their core telephony systems away from classical telephone switches to IP based call servers, and these will more than likely comply with the regulation.

I realise this is a vastly different issue to outright banning, but the essential differences go to what consumers are paying for, and what they care about. There is clearly a flourishing market for IP and Internet based telephony, and people don't necessarily realise what they are giving up: it isn't just sound quality. It's call completion times, automatic originating party location notification to emergency services, life line, and a lot of the information about metering and calling party for law enforcement.

The issue about availability of services doesn't just run to freedom of use, but to the nature and type of services available.

Deregulation, levels of competition etc are all related to this as well...

All the best



Narelle
VP ISOC-AU

 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carlos Vera Quintana
> Sent: Monday, 17 August 2009 12:23 AM
> 
> In Ecuador IP telephony is banned also, not for private use 
> but for provide services that require a license