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In what can be seen as a big win for landline monopoly Telecom Egypt, last week, a ban was announced on international calls made through mobile VoIP Internet connections in Egypt.

The ban, which will include blocking the use of Skype via the mobile Web, affects Mobinil, Etisalat Egypt and Vodafone (News - Alert)Egypt according to a report from Reuters.

This ban by Egypt’s National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority “NTRA” was reportedly set in place to stop illegal voice traffic over the mobile Web and in accordance with Egyptian law, requires that international calls pass through Telecom Egypt’s mandated network.

TMC’s (News - Alert) (News - Alert)Tom Keating (News - Alert) blogged that the NTRA had 'tolerated' mobile Internet Telephony (News - Alert)until they recently saw a drop in international call volumes. This, Keating said, pushed them to tell Egypt's operators to enforce the ban.

Sanjit Chatterjee, director of global marketing at REVE Systems, a mobile VoIP provider, told TMCnet that their company believes the sudden ban on mobile VoIP was, “a short sighted approach, driven by the need to protect revenues to the government.”

According to Chatterjee, denying the use of the latest technologies and the choice of affordable long distance services to consumers in Egypt, “may impact the economic competitiveness of a country.”

Rather than blocking mobile VoIP, Chatterjee said the mobile companies could have been asked to explore partnerships with the alternate service providers or look at offering Mobile VoIP services themselves to the consumers.

Singapore-based REVE Systems offers operators the support necessary to shift to mobile VoIP with their iTel Mobile Dialer Express, a mobile application that makes it possible to use VoIP via any mobile phone and that can be branded by operators.

For more, check out the Mobile VoIP channel on TMCnet.

Stefania Viscusi is an assignment editor for TMCnet, covering voice and Voice over IP technologies. She also oversees production of TMCnet's e-Newsletters in the areas of Internet telephony and speech technology. To read more of Stefania's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi