[April 26, 2005]

TMCnet Exclusive: Battle of the VoIP-Call-Blocking Telecoms Goes International

BY JOHANNE TORRES

Some VoIP-based calling service providers such as Skype and Vonage have started to complain about Telmex, a Mexican telecom, for allegedly blocking and/or hindering the quality of its call traffic.

The issue reached the news this week, leading to reports about Skype and Vonage customers voicing their rage about their growing VoIP service pains. Skypers and Vonage users have noticed that the quality of their frequent calls from the mariachi country has gone way sour. In fact, the level is so bad, some say, that it is completely unacceptable.

According to a news.com report, VoIP providers are now experiencing a problem characteristic in countries such as Qatar, Costa Rica and Panama—which usually have just one government-owned telephone carrier with steady control over regulators.

Carriers such as Telmex and Puerto Rico Telephone among others, formerly owned by the government and recently privatized, still enjoy a dominant role in their respective country’s telecom space. This status could very easily set grounds for unfair competitive tactics such as VoIP access blocking or a reduced quality of this kind of calling services.

According to news.com, because the Federal Telecommunications Commission (FTC) lets complaints from foreign competitors linger without resolution for years; and its recommended enforcement is rarely meted by the nation's Secretariat of Communications and Transportation, according to the USTR. "Uncertainty regarding the treatment of voice over Internet Protocol services in Mexico is cause for concern. Irrespective of the merits of Telmex's ambitions, restrictions on the ability of any entity, foreign or domestic, to supply VoIP appears inappropriate," released a White House Office of the U.S. Trade Representative a month ago.

I spoke to Brooke Schulz, SVP Corporate Communications for Vonage this morning about this alarming issue. Schulz explained that because Vonage does not sell its services in Mexico, residents or businesses in that country are unable to sign up for any of its VoIP-based calling plans. This prevents Vonage from protecting or offering any kind of remedy for users that sign up in the US and take the service with them for use in Mexico.

"We started receiving complaints from customers that try to use our services in Mexico a few months ago. We are certain that Telmex, which only serves Mexico, completely blocks access to our service or dials down upload speed to below 30 mbps (slower than a dialup connection), causing users to have such poor quality of service that the phone calls just don’t go through." When asked how Vonage deals with the complaints, Schulz said the company advices consumers to try to get another broadband and/or VoIP-based calling service provider.

Schulz said customers should not have any problems when calling Mexico from the US.

I will certainly keep you posted about any developments on this issue as more information becomes available.