Dubai: While many lament the end of internet telephony in the UAE as we knew it, the decision to ban access to the services has been defended by the country's telecommunications regulatory body and the UAE's telecommunications service provider.
Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP) are considered a regular telecommunications service and therefore fall under the jurisdiction of national regulations, according to the UAE's Telecommunications Regulations Authority (TRA).
"The TRA considers VoIP as a means to provide a telecommunications service," explained the TRA's manager of technical affairs, Mohammad Gheyath. "The technology and the service are not of relevance here, as voice traffic is provided over a medium.
"This is similar to providing voice over a mobile network or conventional telephone networks ... this service has to be dealt with like any other telecom service, and like other telecom services it requires licensing and authorisations to be provided."
According to Gheyath, the TRA has only licensed two operators to provide telecommunications services within the UAE, Etisalat and du, and as such it is considered illegal for any other, unlicensed party to provide these services, regardless of whether it is a traditional voice, mobile, internet or VoIP service.
Gheyath cites the telecommunications law in the UAE, saying that any telecommunications service that seeks to operate in the country must first obtain a license from the TRA.
Commenting on the fact that some locales in the UAE continue to receive access to VoIP services, Gheyath said that these services will also soon come to an end.
"Because these areas were initially served by entities governed by different regulations [they were able to access the services]. But now since the TRA is the sole telecom regulating body, the same provisions will apply to all areas."
According to the UAE's telecommunications service provider Etisalat, the ban on VoIP is simply a "continuation of the policy of blocking access to undesirable content on the internet", a process that started with the establishment of the National Internet Committee in the UAE a decade ago.
"At that time there was no regulatory body, so, in its absence, the committee put certain guidelines in place for Etisalat to follow ... since then Etisalat has been implementing these guidelines to the best of its abilities," an Etisalat spokesperson said.
Etisalat has also indicated that it intends to launch its very own VoIP services in the near future.
"Our objective is to provide a service with the highest quality standards and reliability which is what Etisalat has been always associated with. This is in contrast to current illegal VoIP services where quality standards are unreliable."
Responding to queries as to why some areas receive access to VoIP services and others do not, Etisalat said that there were always new ways of getting around blocks because of the "dynamic nature of the internet."
