Egypt Says No More Mobile Skype Calls

from the can't-route-around dept

Tue, Mar 23rd 2010 12:34am — Mike Masnick

Egypt has apparently decided that it doesn't like the idea of people making mobile phone calls that it can't track and/or that the state-owned telco can't make money off of. So it's banning all mobile VoIP calls. Apparently "fixed" VoIP calls are okay, which gets a bit confusing:

"The ban is on Skype on mobile internet, not on fixed, and this is due to the fact it is against the law since it bypasses the legal gateway," said Amr Badawy, the executive president of the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA).

Under Egyptian law, international calls must pass through a network controlled by majority state-owned Telecom Egypt, which this week reported disappointing earnings.

But what is the difference between the "mobile internet" and the "fixed internet" in real terms? If I use a laptop on a 3G connection... is that fixed or mobile? If I use a mobile phone on a WiFi connection connected to a DSL line, is that fixed or mobile? This just seems like a way to try to boost profits for the state owned telco with arbitrary rules.

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Filed Under: egypt, voip
Companies: skype

17 Comments

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Blatant Coward (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 1:38am

This just in...
In a follow up interview National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA) released the following guideline. "If what you are doing does not make us money, it is illegal, and your mother would be very ashamed."
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mike allen (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 2:09am

interesting
must get skype on my mobile before the Digital econimy bill becomes law in UK
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John Martin (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 2:30am

mobile monitoring
Egypt is also really interested in not having international communications which originate inside the country that are not able to be monitored, particularly on the mobile networks. Mobile traffic is monitored in Egypt. That is the primary reason for this ban. People have been using Skype and other VoIP for a long time in Egypt, but it has only been in the past several years that the mobile networks have been capable of supporting it, and its use is at an all-time high right now.
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Haywood (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 3:38am

Sounds unenforceable
If the problem is that they can't track it, what is to stop anyone from just doing it anyhow. When Skype is outlawed only outlaws will have Skype
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Txknight (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 4:53am

Not new
The same is true in Korea, Skype is not allowed there, but folks still use it
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Mle, 23 Mar 2010 @ 4:56am

No it's pretty easy to understand
If you are using 3g to connect to the Internet , no skype (paying mobile company for Internet)
If the Internet is coming fom a fixed landline, even if it goes through wifi router- skype ok. (paying dsl company for Internet)

It's pretty straight foward, even if the reasoning behind it is not.
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Freedom, 23 Mar 2010 @ 5:29am

Yeah ... but...
>> It's pretty straight foward, even if the reasoning behind it is not.

Okay, how about this?

What if I use my 3G connection via a VPN Tunnel to my office which then goes out via a hard line?

What if I'm connected to a land line but I VPN over to a router that uses 3G ultimately for Internet/VoIP traffic?

Freedom
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KEYBORED, 23 Mar 2010 @ 5:29am

Re: This just in...
Excellent comment. Very funny.
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Premjith, 23 Mar 2010 @ 5:40am

Just seems in future
Skype is very pretty straight foward...interesting to be that a 3G connection need that
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bob, 23 Mar 2010 @ 5:58am

Ten Dollars A Minute
That's what I paid a few times in a couple of places overseas back in the 80's and early 90's, I would have loved Skype back then.

I can see why the official state owned Egyptians would be upset by it.
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mle, 23 Mar 2010 @ 6:00am

Re: Yeah ... but...
Based on what I know about this

3g to vpn to hardline- ok, as the data would appear as regular traffic, not VOIP to the ISP.

Is the 3g router inside the country or outside? Inside Egypt probably not ok, outside, most likely ok, because Egyptian mobile companies really have no say over your use of other country's 3g network.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Mar 2010 @ 6:05am

Egypt is a police state.
Egypt is a police state, pure and simple.
Apparently they don't have the tech to monitor Voip over 3g, sucks to be them.
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Hephaestus (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 6:50am

and of course ....
Of course there will be an escalation and someone will write an app to replace skype that you cant tell is VOIP. Every mobile phone today has an SDK for app development. Making this ban worthless in the long run.
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Sir William Wallace, 23 Mar 2010 @ 1:06pm

Freedom!
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Mar 2010 @ 12:26am

Another player see it's lunch being eaten by technological progress so stifle that progress by all means necessary. God forbid companies should actually have to innovate instead of running to the courts when the world makes things that they don't like.
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Pool Tables For Sale, 18 Dec 2010 @ 7:43pm

Re: Yeah ... but...
Yeah, a little bit confusing between mobile internet and fixed internet.
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Rene, 28 Dec 2013 @ 11:39pm

vpn rules
I have used vpnservice for a long time and it works fine in my mobile and also computer

http://strongvpn.com/aff/scripts/click.php?a_aid=skype&a_bid=ca14b048&chan=skype

Easy installation and nice support.
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