Skype Bans Mean Big Profits For Incumbent Telecoms
from the ol'-cash-cow dept
Last week we noted that Jordan had recently banned Skype in what looked like a pretty obvious ploy to aid the country's incumbent telecom monopoly. Jordan ultimately reversed the ban, but does banning Skype actually have the desired effect? Sadly, it appears it does. In neighboring UAE, the government also banned Skype, much to the chagrin of Dubai's many ex-pats, and much to the delight of Etisalat, the country's main telecom operator. Following the ban, Etisalat's profits jumped dramatically, 41% in the recent quarter. There may be other factors involved, such as the ongoing economic boom in the region. But when you're selling international calls at $.75/minute, and your competitor that was selling the same thing for $.02/minute gets shut down, it clearly helps.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Beyond Skype
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Beyond Skype
Surely Skype users can move to another similar service. Drag their main contacts with them
as it stands right now... no.
skype is a closed protocol, unlike SIP, and so you have to use the skype software and the skype protocol to connect to skype contacts. SIP is an open standard and you can use several devices, clients, and providers.
perhaps skype can provide some sort of ENUM service and register with sip broker.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Big money...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Big money...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Big money...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Big money...
Mmm... not exactly. If anything the telco company of UAE and Jordan are government owned and operated. And when I mean government, I really mean they belong to the king, or his cousin, or uncle. And competition is better reserved out of the realm of the King's possessions.
Like I said earlier: not a democracy, not an open market, not capitalistic, nothing of what you describe.
Regarding your concern of money buying political influence and squashing competition, what planet do you come from? 6,000 years of documented history of such practices. I'm sorry if you just opened your eyes, but this is how it works.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Big money...
He is speaking on a broader level, where if some company or goverment feels like they can't compete in a free market then they just ban they other product.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
C.R.E.A.M.
So this is the "free market" economy that people bitch about all the time. Build up a strangle hold on some market and when a competitor arises you just ban them. If this really was free market then these big businesses would have the balls to take on these competitiors but offering superior service (or better prices) instead of buying government intervention.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Let alone skype lets hope they dont ban all voip services (if that were technologically possible)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
nasty
Nasty trick really - I can't use skype to anyone on Telecom's network from TelstraClear's network because Telstra refuses to pay a peering fee to Telecom - even though I live in the same country. I get lag that's several minutes at a time!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: nasty
Even TelstraClear does for DSL, (though it doesn't peer), but doesn't with Cable, which is what I'm using now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Will they also be banning calling cards...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Will they also be banning calling cards...
Not cheap, but not exorbitant like I heard it was in those islands.
I also bought several calling cards "guaranteed" to work from any country.
Well, nothing worked from there.
I couldn't even get ahold of AT&T's service dept. on my wireless no matter what I dialed, only the Bahamiam telco.
A 7 minute call was $50 USD!!!
The cards didn't work and we had to buy ones sold there for $1 USD per minute.
Reverse charging on a home calling card didn't work either-because you couldn't get ahold of any outside networks--- and they tried to charge $79 USD for 14 minutes!
(I disputed all charges and never had to paid 'em.)
But how's that for a monopoly & gov't bans?!
I'll never go back there because it's such a rip-off like that with EVERYTHING.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I don't think they can do...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]