Is it Possible to Selectively Bar VoIP?
October 15th, 2008
Having made calls using VoIP without issue for a long time I was perplexed as to why recently I had been having lots of issues. The quality of sound has gone right down and latency issues have increased significantly. Users on VoIP online forums in the US and other countries, including Germany and Mexico, having issues since last year. For a while VoIP might seem like a good deal for the average person, more established interests in the telecoms industry view it differently - and are trying to make a stand.
Consultation
Mindful of what has happened in other countries the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom took the unusual action in February of announcing that it will look at the burgeoning VoIP industry and report next month on whether new laws are necessary to shield it. The consultation document says: “VoIP service providers have expressed concern that their ability to provide a reliable service may be impacted by internet access providers (ISPs) selectively degrading or blocking their VoIP traffic.”
Ofcom says it has no evidence this is happening in the UK; only about 000 customers use VoIP. But the forecast is for that to rise by 4m in the next six months.
And VoIP barring occurs in other countries, often those where there is still only a single incumbent telecoms company. In Saudi Arabia, for example national carrier Saudi Telecom is using software from US supplier Narus to block all VoIP phone calls.
Telecommunication companies in the US as well as other countries are hesitant to have their bandwidth taken up by traffic from which they receive no funds and have been challenged over similar alleged incidents of VoIP blocking. Hindering Voice over IP traffic is complicated but not illegal and blocking specific types of internet traffic is going up.
The European based VoIP giant Skype who are now owned by the pre-eminent auction site eBay has been particularly controversial. Skype is used by 75m people. But not everyone wants Skype on their network.
Skype is considered by a lot of people to pose a potential security threat because it opens an encrypted channel out of the network and forms supernodes that sit on a network and set up VoIP calls. There is considerable debate about how much bandwidth such supernodes eat up. There have been claims that in supernode mode, Skype could possibly saturate a 100 Mbps line.
Entry Filed under: Best Technology Resources, Great Telecommunication Tips