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Skype VOIP calls from UAE and Middle East

VoIP technology provider aims to become a legitimate way to communicate with customers and suppliers and is currently gearing up to set up a representative office in the Middle East before the end of the year

Skype's Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology enables 600 million users around the world to place phone calls via the internet for free or from computer to phone, for pennies on the dollar, far less than traditional landline and mobile phone rates in the UAE.

Skype, however, is banned in the UAE and its website, www.skype.com, is blocked by authorities.
Rouzbeh Pasha, Skype's Head of Middle East and Africa discuss with Gulf News daily the future of Skype in the Middle East and a possible presence in the UAE amid newly relaxed regulations by telecom authorities.

Pasha was a panellist yesterday participating at the Middle East Communications 2010 conference in Abu Dhabi.

In March, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced that it had revised for the first time its policies in order that "licensees may offer VoIP as a technology." The TRA said in a statement that "offering VoIP is considered a regulated activity which requires a licence. Therefore, only licensees may provide VoIP services... However, they [VoIP companies such as Skype] can always approach and collaborate with the licensees to legally provide their services." What is Skype's view on the latest TRA announcement and does this mean that expatriates should look forward to legally using Skype service in the UAE soon?

Obviously, this is going in the right direction. However, it is a small step. If you look at the potential UAE has, it is great. From our point of view, it's not really about any one country specifically. I'm in charge of a big region, [the] Middle East and Africa; it's 1.3 billion people with 300 million Arabic-speaking people.

If you look at what Skype brings to these people, this is an amazing product, it helps people get close to their loved ones. If you look at the average number of contacts people have on Skype, it's less than 10.

These are people who you want to see their face. Thirty-four per cent of all Skype calls are video calls. On special occasions such as Ramadan and New Year, more than 60 per cent of all our calls are on video. This helps [our users] stay in contact with people who matter.

Can you confirm that Skype is in talks with TRA or etisalat, du, Thuraya and Yahsat, to bring your VoIP services legally to the UAE through a partnership that would see a portion of Skype revenues stay in the country?

Usually we don't comment on any financial discussions we have with government agencies. However, we do work with partnerships.

We are a Luxembourg-based company. All of our servers are based there. We do work with local partners. We don't comment until we have something we can report on. Our strategy is to globally work with partners. A lot of potential partners have reached out to us. We're in discussions with quite a few.

There are reports that suggest Skype could be up and running freely in the UAE within the next two years. Is that optimistic?

I don't want to speculate. The sooner that everything can be fine, and... Skype can be everywhere, that will be better. But we will have to have relationships in place.

We are working toward that goal. It has to make sense. It is working in every part of the world and it should be working in the Middle East and Africa. But I don't want to put a timeline on it.

Is it your opinion that if a less expensive alternative was given to expatriates to call abroad, more Skype phone calls would be placed, creating higher revenues that would be shared in a partnership with a traditional UAE telecom partner?

How people communicate has really changed. People used to communicate only through voice calls. The device you hold in your hand now does a lot of other things including video. You can read the news on it, talk to a colleague, and also because of this development people aren't confined to voice any more.

Up to 50 per cent of calls depending on the occasion are done on video, a paradigm shift from low-quality voice on the other end. This is what technical innovation has brought us. If you don't upgrade your business model, you will end up losing the whole lot.

Working with a company like Skype helps future-proof your business model. In the short term you would be able to make additional money on what you are doing. You would be looking at making more money on data than on pure voice.

Pure voice is a disappearing thing. As more tools become available to you, you choose more online things. It's about the quality. The volume increases so much that you are making more money. This is an opportunity for... operators to make more money.

[Skype] is an application that drives the user to go get a data subscription, broadband subscription or mobile subscription so that they can use it. It's like you have a fast car and then going through the toll road to use it.

This region is as promising as any other region especially if you look at how the ICT trend is growing in the Middle East and Africa. The average speed of internet access is increasing. Some of the youngest and most tech-savvy people are living in this region. It really is a high growth region in all aspects of online services and Skype is one of them.

There are reports that Skype is already hunting for office space on Shaikh Zayed Road in Dubai to set up [its local] headquarters in the UAE. Can you confirm this?

We're looking at setting up a regional support office in the Middle East. It will be a representative office for Skype to support marketing and develop business activities in the region. We will announce soon which country it's going to be. We're not commenting yet where it will be.

We are an online company so that whatever we do is online. A geographical presence is to reach out to partners. It's not going to be an operation out of here, not like Blackberry selling out of an office. This will be closer to partners in the region. It will be this year, sometime this year. This is for us to show the long-term view we are taking in the region. Even though our software is available in every corner of the world, we have very few offices.

Dubai has always been a business hub and in most recent years has become an international destination to conduct commerce. Does Skype believe that less expensive calling rates internationally would improve affordability and access to other global centres for small businesses, exponentially increasing the flow of capital and trade into the UAE?

Totally. It is one of the main reasons that Skype can benefit the region and this country in particular. If you can use Skype as an official tool to communicate with customers and suppliers, it can give you a tool to be more efficient.

In economic development, communications is one of the key elements. This is really a global trading hub. You have suppliers in the Far East and customers in the Far West. You have to communicate with people. The easier you can communicate the more efficient you can be.

In the long run, it is one of the basic components for economic development and one way for businesses to become more profitable and more sufficient. If that happens, it does benefit the total economy of a country.

As the largest VoIP provider on the planet, what kind of numbers has Skype been enjoying in recent years?

We recorded 8 per cent [of international calling minutes] in 2008, 12 per cent in 2009. Skype was one of the companies driving the increase in total volume. Not only did we increase our share, but we also helped increase the total volume of calls. We now have 600 million users globally.

We just celebrated the concurrent logging in of 20 million users at the same time. This shows you the power of the technology. We do want to be seen as a company that breaks down barriers, this is one of the driving principles Skype has. We want users to feel part of the global community. If you are online, this is a tool that enables people to communicate wherever they are. This is the first time you can do it so cost-efficiently. Here this is really using the power of the internet to offer these services at a very low cost.

With an estimated 65 per cent of the Middle East population under the age of 30 constantly connected through handheld devices and laptops, do you see Skype emerging even stronger in coming years over traditional telephone platforms?

Skype is going to be one of the strongest platforms for communication online. It will allow users to do more online communication rather than single-device use. You log in, you check your e-mail, your news, you Skype your friend, do whatever you want. This region has great potential. The ICT is catching up now, it is improving and is great. People can get online faster than before.

VoIP technology provider aims to become a legitimate way to communicate with customers and suppliers and is currently gearing up to set up a representativeoffice in the Middle East before the end of the year

600m: number of Skype users worldwide representing roughly nine per cent of the world's population
20m: Skype recently celebrated a milestone in its history with 20 million Skype users logged on at the same time
34%: of all Skype callsare video calls
54b: Skype's share of 406 billion international calling minutes logged last year worldwide
7: Skype was founded sevenyears ago in Luxembourgh

DU PREPARES UP FOR VOIP SERVICES FROM UAE

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, the UAE telecom operator known as du, said yesterday that it is building a base to offer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services but has not yet zeroed in on a partner.

The company said net profit before royalty for the first quarter of this year more than quadrupled to Dh194 million, compared to Dh47 million in the first quarter of 2009. Revenue for the period was Dh1.58 billion, a 36 per cent increase over the same period last year and 3 per cent more than the fourth quarter.

"We are very pleased with the results. It shows our continued growth," said Osman Sultan, du's Chief Executive Officer, during a conference call yesterday. "It's a growth that has translated into a record revenue for us," he said.

An increase in the number of subscribers has been the main driver behind the record revenues, Sultan said. The number of active mobile subscribers increased by 262,000 in the first quarter, bringing the total active mobile subscriber base to more than 3.7 million.

Proposition

Du is currently "building a VoIP proposition", but hasn't decided on a partner yet, Sultan said. VoIP telephony allows users to make phone and video calls and send text messages using the internet at costs significantly lower than those charged by traditional network operators. Etisalat recently slashed international call costs to Dh0.50 per minute on landlines.

"We are now exploring different routes," Sultan said. "We will be announcing this year a value proposition for the enterprise and residence markets," Sultan said.

The extraordinary general assembly of shareholders agreed to the proposal to increase the company's capital to Dh4.57 billion by selling 571,428,571 new shares on a rights basis for Dh1.75 each.

The rights shares will be priced at 33 per cent discount to Monday's closing price (Dh2.55) on the Dubai Financial Market and at 38 per cent discount compared the price before the rights issue announcement last month, Sultan said.

The proceeds of the issue, about Dh1 billion, will be used to increase the company's capital in order to position it for future growth.

Capital structure

"This Dh1 billion that the company will be collecting is not needed for deadlines. I think we need to plan for a three- to four-year road map. We need to have a better capital structure," he said.

"The company has the highest growth among all telecom operators in this region and we anticipate remaining on the high end for 2010."

Asked about potential expansion plans outside the UAE, Sultan said there were "no intentions for any acquisition or any plans to go outside the UAE". The company's primary focus is to grow further in the country, he said

International calls using VOIP IN UAE soon

The two telephone operators in the UAE will soon offer the service that allows customers to make international calls over the internet.

Officials at etisalat and du said that the network of each respective company is ready to make the service available before July of this year, reported the local Arabic daily Emarat Al Youm.

Both companies are awaiting final approval and instructions from the country's telecommunications regulator, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).

The TRA's approval will provide rules regarding pricing and procedures.

The daily reported that it is expected that the new service would offer cheaper pricing of international calls in comparison to what is currently available in the market.

VOIP IN UAE - TRA in talks with Etisalat and Du

Good news mostly for expatriates in UAE

The United Arab Emirates' telecom regulator is in discussions with the country's two service providers to introduce VoIP, or voice-over-protocol services, Mohamed Al Ghanim the director general of the telecom regulatory authority said in an interview in Dubai.

The deadline for Etisalat and Du to agree on infrastructure sharing is the end of this year, he said.

Consumers will see a drop next year in internet charges as a result of the agreement, Al Ghanim said.

Cheap VOIP providers to India

Please find hereunder few VOIP services providing cheap calls to India

CallEasy: CallEasy is a part of Betamax services. Calleasy currently offers calls to india at 2 cents per minute which is the lowest in the market.


WebCallDirect: They are also a part of betamax VOIP services. Offering 2 cents per minute to India.

Intervoip: Intervoip started off with 1.5 cents and was the cheapest call provider for India. However they increased their rates almost immediately and now for landline calls they offer 2.5 cents and for mobile, its 2 cents per minute.

There are more cheap VOIP Providers (mostly betamax services) who offer international voip calls to India in the range of 3-6 cents per minute. However currently CallEasy and WebCalldirect seem like the best offers available.

Jajah to Bring VoIP to Yahoo Messenger

Jajah have announced today that they have been selected to provide the VoIP engine that will be used by Yahoo to provide VoIP services through the Yahoo! Messenger client. This is the first major customer to close with Jajah, using their Jajah Managed Services, targetted at business customers. Jajah already touch 10 million customers of their own via a portfolio of web-based and mobile products, based on callback/callout technology and Jajah's own international VoIP backbone. With the Yahoo deal, Messenger clients will have access to call-in and call-out technology for PC-to-PSTN and PSTN-to-PC, bringing a further 97 million customers to Jajah.

Trevor Healy, Jajah CEO said that the seamless integration of web and voice interaction is clearly important to strategic partner, Yahoo!. Through this relationship, Jajah have the opportunity to extend their innovative global calling services with an industry leader that can leverage the power of their platform and network.

With its managed services business, Jajah aims to acquire more telco and cable company customers over coming months, and this marks a strategy change for the company.

Pennytel offer unlimited Phone calls to India

Pennytel is offering unlimited calls (no limit per call) to India using their service.

Under the "Talk till you drop" promotion, Pennytel is offering 8 cents untimed (You can talk as much as you want, no limit on call time) destinations to over 70 destinations, which does not include India. Pennytel is also offering the rest of destionations at 38.88c per call (Its AUD so its around 36.5 USD cents per call, which is great). This rate applies to countries such as India.

If you talk for more than 10 minutes, you already beat Betamax rates.

Lets see why this is cheapest call to india.

Consider you talking for over 30 minutes to India. With Betamax, considering rates of 3 cents per minute, you have to pay 30 x 3 = 0.90 USD. With Pennytel, you would only be spending 36.5 cents, thats almost a saving of over 0.535 dollar per call.

The more you talk, more your benefit since you just have to pay 36.5 cents once the call starts.

On top of all this, they are offering

1. 50 Free SMS Monthly!
2. Free Traditional Phone Number!
3. No commitment, contract or minimum terms
4. No flagfall or connection fees
5. Free PennyTel to PennyTel Calls
6. Per second billing - for destinations that are not untimed

Remember, you can configure Pennytel on your SIP softphone or you can use it using Mobile VOIP or you can download their softphone.

Pennytel sip details are

Phone Number 888xxxxxxx
Display Name 888xxxxxxx
SIP Domain sip.pennytel.com
Sip Server sip.pennytel.com
Username 888xxxxxxx
password --- what they emailed you

Sip settings

SIP Listen Port 5060
Proxy Setting Proxy IP: sip.pennytel.com
Proxy Port: 5060
Registrar Setting Registrar IP: sip.pennytel.com
Registrar Port: 5060
Re-Registration Time Interval 300

Happy talking to your friends and family.

TringMe introduces Gtalk-based calling

TringMe now allows making calls from Google Talk (Gtalk). As you know, natively, Gtalk doesn't support making phone calls. This is yet another feature which underlines TringMe's core philosophy of not requiring any software installation for purposes of using TringMe. If you already have Gtalk installed, then with this capability, making a worldwide call to any phone or SIP URI from Gtalk is as simple as sending a message using Gtalk. Calls made from Gtalk can be terminated on all devices that TringMe currently supports.
TringMe continues to innovate in providing connectivity between heterogeneous end-points based on calle and caller's convenience including IMs, Web, Landline and Mobile Phones.
Although this feature is currently under test and is scheduled to be commercially released by February end, it's available for you to try it.
You have to sign up at TringMe with a gmail ID so that a TringMe account can be associated when you make a call from Gtalk (signup with TringMe using same email id as Gtalk). As you may already know, worldwide calling rates offered by TringMe are very competitive and almost half than Skype or other VoIP providers.
To make a call, all you need to do is send a message to tringme@gmail.com from Gtalk. Please note that you would have added tringme to the list of friends in Gtalk already.

To make a call to a number, merely send a message - call - to tringme@gmail.com. For e.g. call 18585551212 would initiate a call to 1-858-555-1212
You can also call other TringMe users by merely using their email address. For e.g., call abc@xyz.com would connect user abc@xyz.com to whatever destination the user has chosen to terminate upon.
You can reach more than 40 million worldwide SIP users using Gtalk just by typing their SIP URI. For e.g call greg@somesipserver.com will connect you to Greg’s SIP server.
In all cases, you will get an inbound call from TringMe and once you answer, the call to the intended party will be initiated. This also opens a new way for developers to integrate core TringMe functionalities using Google or Jabber APIs.

TringMe also demonstrated MobileVoIP at an even in India last month – some details are here http://blog.tringme.com/tringme-at-headstart-2008 . Some more ideas and thoughts are captures at http://blog.tringme.com


Enjoy the new way of making calls.