Foreign firms interested in offering VoIP in UAE may approach Etisalat and Du
The UAE’s Telecommunication Regulatory Authority has reiterated that the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) – including Skype – is prohibited in the UAE, reported Emarat Al Youm newspaper.
The regulatory authority said that VoIP is banned under the Federal Decree Law No. 3/2003 and only the two telecom operators Etisalat and Du are authorised to offer such services.
However, none of the two companies have submitted requests with regard to offering VoIP services in the UAE so far.
The foreign companies who are interested in providing VoIP services here should coordinate with the two telecom services providers to offer the service to residents, TRA said.
However, some Skype users have faced difficulties recently.
The residents told Emarat Al Youm that Skype stopped responding and they’re unable to make both voice and video calls for months.
The residents also said that other softwares such as Viber also had voice clarity issues.
The subscribers urged Etisalat and Du to reduce international call rates first before blocking VoIP softwares.
