Forbidden to Use VoIP Technology in Egypt

Egyptian government officially banned the use of technology, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to make international calls. Egypt requires international calls must go through an international connection services of government-owned telecommunications operator Telecom Egypt.

The ban was imposed for telecom operators in Egypt, such as Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalat. "National Telecom Regulatory Authority has decided that VoIP is stopped and we had to stop since last Saturday," said Director of External Affair of Vodafone, Khaled Hegazy.

The obligation to use the connection property intenasional Telecom Egypt is an effort to increase the income of state-owned operators such. As we know Egypt declining revenues since 2009. The presence of VoIP applications like Skype has lowered income Telecom Egypt. Given the more users switch to using Skype because they cost very cheap.

VoIP, or often also called IP Telephony, Internet telephony or Digital Phone is a technology that allows voice conversations remotely via internet. Voice data converted into digital code and streamed through the network sends data packets, and not through a traditional telephone analog circuits. In addition to low cost and even free, VoIP benefits the other is the use of a smaller bandwidth than ordinary telephone.