UAE | General

Legal internet telephony set to become reality in new year

When the New Year comes, residents here may start making international phone calls via the internet without the fear of being penalised, industry officials said.

  • By Jay B. Hilotin, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 00:00 October 24, 2004
  • Gulf News

When the New Year comes, residents here may start making international phone calls via the internet without the fear of being penalised, industry officials said.

This, they said, would create a whole new industry that uses broadband connections, allowing for clearer internet calls that could rival traditional telephone networks.

"There's no stopping Voice over the use of Internet Protocol (VoIP) in the Gulf or anywhere else in the world," said an executive based in the Dubai Internet City free zone.

Under existing laws, Etisalat does not allow personal computer to phone calls.

All this could change starting next year, when the UAE's pledge to the World Trade Organisation to open its telecom sector comes into force.

VoIP breaks voice, video and data into packets, allowing them to take different routes before reassembling at the receiver's end - thereby converting the internet into a telephone network. With the information highway, this process happens in split seconds.

Mohammad Al Fahim, Etisalat executive vice-president marketing, said they would soon allow private telecom suppliers to provide all equipment located on a customer's premises in light of the telecom liberalisation moves.

The company said in a statement it would allow private suppliers to provide such equipment as telephones, fax machines, cable modems, telex, answering machines and private automatic branch exchange (PABX) systems.

It was not clear on Voice over IP equipment, since some suppliers also offer a PABX for internet telephony.

University students, free-zone companies and banks have jumped into the internet telephony bandwagon.

Emirates Bank International (EBI) said it is implementing Avaya's IP telephony system at 40 branches. It would also replace all its traditional telephone communications at its contact centre, manned by 70 service agents, with internet telephony to cut costs.

Hundreds of employees in its eight new branches will also be connected via IP telephony by the end of the year while other existing branches will be migrated in phases.

"IP Telephony will allow us to expand our customer support capabilities, mobilise our resources and make tremendous savings on communications costs," said Abdullah Qassem, chief manager of IT and operations at EBI.

How it works

  • Internet telephones turn voice and data into packets, allowing them to take different routes before reassembling at the receiver's end - converting Internet into a telephone network.
  • Broadband allows the process to take place with no time delays.
  • VoIP (Voice over the use of Internet Protocol) also allows remote collaboration between people on different continents.

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