Saudi Government seems more determined than ever to monitor and control Voice over IP (VoIP) activities being done through applications like Viber, Skype and Whatsapp. Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), the telecom regulator of Saudi Arabia has declared on its website that VoIP services such as these are breaking Saudi regulatory laws. The authority informed the licensed telecom providers to work with developers of these services and make sure that they comply with the Saudi regulatory laws, though CITC refused to mention publicly as to what laws had these services contravened.
The English-language Arab News daily also mentioned that may try to end anonymity for Twitter users in the country by limiting access to the site only to people who register their identification documents. It was not clarified as to how such restrictions could be enforced since people can easily access the services if the application is already installed on their system or they download and install it through anonymous proxy servers.
As we mentioned in earlier article, “Saudis use ‘Islam’ for increasing international call revenue”, despite having 188 percent teledensity as of ending 2012 (according to CITC stats), Saudi telecom operators feel threatened by the increased use of VoIP services to connect to people around the world. This bypasses the traditional telecom voice route due to which they are unable to generate revenue through this channel.
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