Source:
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090405/BUSINESS/883175884/-1/OPINION

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has reiterated its ban on Skype and other internet-calling services, but appears unable or unwilling to prevent distribution of the software, which is now available through Apple’s iTunes Application store.

While Skype’s website has been blocked by the TRA since 2006, the Application Store, opened in the UAE to coincide with Etisalat’s release of the iPhone, has offered the Skype for iPhone application as a free download since the mobile phone programme’s launch last Tuesday.

And in the past week, Skype for iPhone has been the most popular free download from the UAE Application Store, with more than one million global downloads since its release.

In a statement to The National, the TRA declined to comment on whether the availability of the software represents a change in policy, or if the Application Store is in breach of its agreement with UAE regulators.

Instead, the regulator said it was responsible for overseeing all services offered by licensed telecoms operators. The only licensed operators in the UAE are Etisalat and du, and it is the lack of such a licence that forms the basis for the TRA’s banning of Skype and other internet-based calling services.

The regulator added that its rules on internet calling were in place “in order to guarantee quality of service, safety of the customer and security concerns as a result of using unlicensed services in the UAE”.

Etisalat has also called on the UAE regulator to allow it to lower the prices it charges for the iPhone and its monthly package plans. In a briefing to the Arabic-language press, Mohammed al Qamzi, the company’s chief executive, said it sent a request to the TRA for a price reduction, but had yet to hear back.

Etisalat’s pricing plans for the iPhone put the company at the top end in pricing of all international operators offering the device. Its plans are up to 50 per cent more expensive than similar deals in Jordan and Egypt, and more than double the price of comparable iPhone packages in the UK or Australia. In requesting permission for a price cut, the company appears to be acknowledging market demand for a lower-priced offering.

The two UAE telecoms companies must submit all pricing schemes for approval by the regulator, which has been keen to avoid a price war between the deep-pocketed Etisalat and its younger rival, du.

Mr al Qamzi said a number of new pricing offers from Etisalat had been rejected by the TRA, and that the regulator had yet to make clear when the two companies would be able to engage in more direct competition.

In overseas markets where internet calling has become a large, legal business, the launch of Skype on the iPhone has also raised regulatory questions.

In the US, an internet advocacy group has called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to clarify whether mobile internet networks come under the same regulatory umbrella as fixed-line broadband systems.

The FCC has long enforced a ruling that forbids internet providers from restricting the kind of applications, services or devices that customers can use on their networks.

Such restrictions are effectively being imposed on mobile phone users, the Free Press group said. As a business partner of the AT&T mobile network, the company has told internet-calling companies, including Skype, that they cannot offer iPhone software that makes calls over the 3G mobile internet system. Skype for iPhone will make calls only over local wireless networks.

“We absolutely expect our vendors not to facilitate the services of our competitors,” an AT&T spokesman said regarding Apple’s move, in an interview with USA Today.

In Europe, the German network operator T-Mobile has said customers using the Skype application on their iPhone risk having their contracts cancelled and their mobile lines terminated. Advocacy groups there have requested intervention from EU regulators.