US company to block Skype in China
News
Chinese telco engaging firm to stymie Skype
By Sumner Lemon, Taipei | Thursday, 10 November, 2005
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Verso Technologies, of Atlanta, Georgia, hopes to soon win a
contract to block Chinese internet users from using eBay's Skype
VoIP software.
A Chinese telecommunications operator has begun a paid trial of
Verso's NetSpective M-Class filter, a product that is designed to
block VoIP calls made using Skype, as well as other peer-to-peer
applications, Verso says.
If the paid trial now underway in one Chinese city goes well, the
operator will purchase the NetSpective M-Class application filter
before the end of the year. Financial terms of the deal were not
disclosed.
The trial is representative of the significant opportunities for
Versos products in the Chinese market, where VoIP is highly
regulated and the use of Skype software has been deemed illegal,
says Yves Desmet, Verso's senior vice president of worldwide
sales.
Verso did not provide additional details of the trial to block
Skype or name the Chinese operator behind the project.
In September, China Telecom, one of two major fixed-line operators
in China, began blocking SkypeOut calls made from Shenzhen, a
southern Chinese city that lies along the border with Hong Kong.
SkypeOut is a service that allows someone with the Skype software
installed on their PC to make international phone calls at a
fraction of the cost that a telecommunications operator would
charge.
The blocking of SkypeOut calls from Shenzhen started several days
before Verso announced the availability of the NetSpective M-Class
application filter, which the company billed as "carrier-grade
Skype filtering technology."
While Verso says the use of Skype is illegal in China, the
situation is more nuanced.
Chinese government officials have been generally tolerant of VoIP
software, such as Skype, that is used to make calls from one PC to
another. But the ability of Skype users to make calls to a phone
via the SkypeOut service is more sensitive, because this directly
affects the revenue that operators such as China Telecom earn from
international phone calls.
On the one hand, the Chinese government owns the carriers and will
act to defend their interests, says Duncan Clark, managing director
of BDA China, a telecommunications consultancy in Beijing. However,
the Chinese government also wants to see the price of making phone
calls come down, he says.
"It's a question of bureaucratic politics," Clark says.
In China, Skype has made an effort to show its sensitivity to the
concerns of operators.
The Chinese-language version of the Skype software made available
through a partnership with Tom Online only permits calls from one
PC to another; SkypeOut calls are not permitted. However, Chinese
users can access SkypeOut by downloading the software directly from
the Skype website.
