Saudi Arabia is threatening to block access to Skype and other Voice over IP (VoIP) communications platforms, apparently because its officials are upset at not being allowed to spy on people?s communications, according to various?local reports.
Officials from Saudi?s Communication and Information Technology Commission are reportedly demanding that service providers such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber give them the means to monitor such applications. The providers have been given until this Saturday to come up with a satisfactory response, reports say, otherwise the Saudis will ?take measures? to block the apps.
Banning Skype and other?free video call?apps would cause upset to millions of people living in the country that use these kinds of services on a regular basis, yet Saudi officials appear determined to press ahead with their plans if their demands are not met.
According to the Arabic language blog Alweeam.com, any ban would be the result of a seemingly irresponsible attitude from Saudi?s telecoms regulators, who are demanding that local telecommunications firms ?do whatever is required? to monitor VoIP apps. The problem, reports Alweeam, is that Saudi telecoms companies don?t actually have the capability to monitor services like Skype, because?VoIP communications are encrypted. Rather than fall foul of the regulators (who apparently haven?t noticed or don?t care that monitoring VoIP is impossible), the telecoms firms will likely just block access to VoIP services instead.
Alweeam adds that such a move would actually suit Saudi?s telecoms companies anyway, as many of them are privately upset about losing revenues?from people using free apps as opposed to making paid calls.
As always, it?ll be the vast majority of regular users that end up suffering from any block of VoIP services. Messaging tools like Skype have become vitally important for both Saudis living abroad and foreign expatriates as a means of communicating with their families.
?I would be very disappointed if CITC disconnects this server; I use it every day to talk to my wife and children who live in India,? Indian schoolteacher Mohammad Akram told Gulf News.
??It enables me to chat with them, share pictures and send voice messages. If they ban it, I would have to go back to talking to my children once a month without seeing them until I visit them.?
If Saudi Arabia does decide to go ahead and block VoIPs, it wouldn?t be the first Middle Eastern country to take such repressive action. The governments of Oman and the UAE have consistently?blocked access to services like Skype and others for years, forcing consumers to either pay for expensive overseas phone calls or use workarounds such as a VPN that encrypts their traffic from local ISPs.
Source: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/03/26/saudis-let-us-monitor-skype-calls-or-else/
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