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Shanghaiist isn't quite sure how this will affect us, but we are pretty sure that our American readers should go throw eggs at the corporate offices of Narus and Verso ... now.
The AP reports:
A U.S. maker of network management systems said today that 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 land lines, 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. ...
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. ...
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.
VoIP-blocking software from another U.S. company, Verso Technologies Inc., is being tried out by an unidentified Chinese carrier.
But then there is this:
Narus' and Verso's software can be configured to block the use of Skype, eBay Inc.'s popular VoIP application. However, Shanghai Telecom has not bought the module from Narus that blocks Skype calls, Bannerman said. The Chinese version of Skype does not connect to the phone network, unlike the international version.
Sage, over at Pacific Epoch, who knows a lot more about this kind of stuff than Shanghaiist, has this to say, however:
The days are numbered for Skype and other Voice-over-IP (VoIP) services in China. ...According to the AP story, Shanghai Telecom has NOT ordered the module that can block eBay's SkypeOut calls, but surely it's only a matter of time...
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Actually, ChinaTelecom has been experimenting with shutting out other VOIP providers from their network since at least last year. I used to have a VOIP phone installed at my place here last year from one of the other Telecom providers here in China. One day, it just stopped working. I found out that ChinaTelecom had begun blocking the ports that the IP Phone used so disgusted, i ordered cable broadband jjust to support that phone. That phone was a beta test version so i was getting free calling for a year. So, it was well worth the 100rmb cost of adding cable broadband. :)
There are new VoIP services like the www.voxalot.com web callback that can not be blocked. How will the ChinaTelecom ever block these type of VoIP offerings?