[June 30, 2010] Telecom Ministry to prohibit commercial use of voice-over-IP: Institution Cites revenue losses as Justification for planned move Tweet BEIRUT, Jul 01, 2010 (The Daily Star - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The Telecommunication Ministry intends to end the use of voice-over-IP (VoIP) from personal computers to land-line telephones because the practice is depriving the treasury of badly needed income. "Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahas will not prevent individuals from using VoIP in Lebanon but only those using this service for commercial purposes will be stopped," said an IT adviser at the Telecoms Ministry on Wednesday. "The ministry is targeting those who sell this service because only the Lebanese government has the right to use it for commercial purposes," IT adviser Mahmoud Haidar told The Daily Star. VoIP is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivering voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks. The Telecoms Ministry issued on June 9 a statement saying it was aiming to fight the illegal use of VoIP, adding that the government generates $150-million yearly from international calls, revenues which VoIP affects severely. "Revenues generated by international calls are considered to be a great support to the treasury with the presence of a high public debt in Lebanon," the statement said. It added that the general directorate of investment and maintenance at the Telecoms Ministry established a technical center to control and fight the use of VoIP because it goes against Lebanon's 2002 telecom laws. "The use of VoIP is also against the treaty that was previously signed between the Lebanese Presidency and the International Telecommunication Union which considers that this service is not allowed on the Lebanese territories," the statement said. Consequently, and following the statement issued by the ministry, hundreds of Lebanese signed an online petition on June 20 objecting to the restrictions imposed by the ministry. The petition stated that the VoIP technology has allowed Lebanese expatriates, immigrants, and students abroad to maintain family ties and uphold family values. It said that perhaps there are benefits to be reaped from banning these networks, but they are only short-term. "Banning these networks will, in the long term, only be detrimental to our sense of belonging to our friends and families, and ultimately to our home country, Lebanon: we will communicate less, share less, and, gradually, lose touch," it added. But Haidar said that only those who were using the PC-to-Phone service were going to be stopped, while people using the PC-to-PC service would keep on using it freely. "A few days ago Skype users connecting from PC to PC witnessed cuts in their lines," he said. "However, when Nahas reviewed the whole issue, he gave permission to allow the usage of the PC-to-PC service by individuals and only to prevent the PC-to-Phone service." This was also mentioned in the statement issued by the Telecommunications Ministry on June 9 stating that it would not prevent the use of the service from PC to PC. Haidar said that the Lebanese government owns advanced software that allows it to keep track of all the outgoing calls in order to identify whether they were being made from PCs or from regular telephones. "Following the decision made by Minister Nahas, the PC-to-Phone service decreased at a certain rate," he said. "We do not know yet how much it decreased exactly." Meanwhile, IT expert Amer Tabesh said that Internet Services Providers do not usually provide high upload speeds in order to minimize the use of VoIP. "If you subscribe to ADSL with a download speed of 512 kbps (kilobits per second) you get an upload speed of only 128 kbps in return," he said. Regarding the establishment of fiber optics in Lebanon, Haidar said the tender documents for this project would be ready during the few coming days or weeks, and then the implementation phase would start which will provide businesses and individuals with high internet speeds at low costs. To see more of the Daily Star, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailystar.com.lb. Copyright (c) 2010, The Daily Star, Beirut, Lebanon Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544). [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]