Abu Dhabi: Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) issued a statement on Wednesday regarding Viber, which offers free internet call service to users, stating it said that the service was never licensed in the UAE.
“We have recently seen local newspapers and social networks publishing news with regards to the ‘Viber’ service being blocked in the UAE. We would like to clarify that the service was never licensed in the UAE,” the telecom regulator said in a statement.
The VoIP (Voice-over-Internet Protocol) regulatory policy of the country has only licensed etisalat and du to provide telecommunication services in the UAE, it said.
“This policy still exists and has not been amended,” TRA stated.
Viber is a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging voice-over-Internet Protocol application for smartphones developed by Viber Media. In addition to text messaging, users can exchange images, video and audio messages.
