DU TO START VOIP FROM UAE

A service which allows users to make cheap international calls through the Internet will soon be launched by du, the company’s commercial director said.

The service will serve as an alternative to Skype, which is banned in the UAE, and will be the first locally developed voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service.

It comes after the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) relaxed several important restrictions on VoIP in March, allowing the country’s two telecom companies Etisalat and du to begin providing the popular service.

Farid Faraidooni, chief commercial director for du, said full details of the new service will begin to emerge
 in the next two months.

“As soon as the TRA altered its policy on VoIP, we began developing this kind of service,” he told Khaleej Times.

“It will not be free, but then not even Skype is free,” he added. “But it will definitely be cheaper to use VoIP for international calls.

“We will be offering different tariffs based on the subscription of the customer.”Faraidooni declined to say whether or not the service would be available to smart-phone users.

The comments by Faraidooni reflect the first effort by local firms to capitalise on the popularity of VoIP programmes, particularly Skype.

Expatriates looking to make cheap calls to home have traditionally used Skype, which is officially banned yet still remains popular.

While traditional mobile phones charge around Dh1.60 a minute for a peak-hour call to India, Skype offers calls at a fraction of that rate.

Skype CEO Josh Silverman told reporters at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit in March that the UAE’s ban on the VoIP programme was “short-sighted”.

“We think it is in the interest of the residents of the UAE and the Emirati government and economy to allow Skype as almost every other country on earth does,” he said.

Two weeks later after Silverman’s comments, the TRA relaxed its policy on VoIP but reiterated that only UAE firms — including newcomers Yahsat and Thuraya — could provide 
the service.

So far, du is the only local firm to announce it will provide an independent VoIP service.

A spokesman for Etisalat said that there was no update to the company’s policy on VoIP.