Chinese Telecom Wants Internet Calls Blocked
Somehow I doubt that this is only about controlling what Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) companies can operate in Mainland China:
China Firm Wants Internet Calls Blocked
NEW YORK (AP) - A U.S. maker of network management systems said Wednesday it had received an order from Shanghai Telecom Co. for a system that can detect and block telephone calls placed over the Internet.
Shanghai Telecom, which has 6.2 million landlines, plans to use Narus Inc.’s system to improve its ability to block “unauthorized” Internet calls that connect to its phone system, bypassing its toll structure.
Use of Internet calling, also known as Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is growing quickly across the world, threatening the business models of some telephone companies.
In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission fined a small telephone company that prevented its Internet subscribers from accessing competing VoIP service, but some countries with state-owned telecommunications companies are taking a different tack.
In China, the government has sided with carriers and allowed them to block VoIP services that compete with the carrier’s own products. A recent report in the Financial Times quoted an executive with a Hong Kong company as saying that the government would not issue new licenses for computer-to-phone calling services until 2008.
The Chinese government and major phone companies have refused to confirm that account.
Steve Bannerman, a spokesman for Mountain View, Calif.-based Narus, said carriers in several countries, including Egypt, are using its software to block gateways that connect VoIP calls to the phone network.
It seems to me that if the number of phone companies can be limited, the ability to monitor phone calls will be enhanced.
Alternative explanations are welcome.
New members of the BizzyBlog Internet Wall of Shame may be added soon.
