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Written by Skype Journal on December 4th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on November 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on November 7th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on November 1st, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on October 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on October 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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GoTalk: Free Happy Hour VoIP Calls
GoTalk is offering new
customers free calling to landlines and cell phones during the 6-7 pm
slot, provided you sign up for a year. A free plug'n'play adapter is
included in the package. [via The VoIP Weblog]
VoIPing For Profit: Skype Moodmessage
Skype has a plugin known as Mood-o-Matic, which displays clickable mood messages.
A guest blogger, Hans Blaauw, at Skype Journal is suggesting this as a
vehicle for unobtrusive advertising, as a way for Skypers to earn some VoIP calling credits. This might be more palatable to some people than Globe7's plan to have people watch video ads to gain VoIP credits.
IP Telephony Changes Canadian Telecom Market
The
Canadian telecom industry is undergoing changes due to new technologies
such as VoIP, which allows non-traditional providers into the market.
And that of course is a good thing, resulting not only in more choices
for consumers but lower prices. The Canadian telecommuncations market,
watched over by the CRTC
(Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission), also
underwent deregulation just like the American market did, and that's
what has paved the way for these changes. [via Teleclick]
Written by ewriter on October 4th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Services and Residential and Regulation.
In spillover activity spurred on by the recent Hewlett-Packard "phonegate" scandal, Verizon is suing 20 data brokers for fraudulent activity re pretexting. Pretexting is where someone pretends to be someone else so that they can access their phone records. Interestingly, the president and vice chair of Verizon is on the HP board of directors. Verizon says it has spent $100,000 investigate the pretexting fraud.
In related news, Democrats in the US House of Representatives, controlled by the Republicans, stalled a bill to make pretexting illegal. The activity is illegal in some states, including California, where the alleged activities took place. As part of an US House of Representatives probe into the pretexting scandal, five private investigators and at least two HP executives have been subpoenaed. HP is also under investigation in California.
Written by ewriter on October 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Security and Business and Regulation and Privacy.
The US House of Representatives has been busy subpoenaing people, including five private investigators and at least two HP executives, for the House probe into the Hewlett-Packard scandal. The whole mess was precipitated by now-former Chair Patricia Dunn when she had PIs access the private phone records of some board members.
Her actions were outside of any legal action such as CALEA. In fact, records were obtained by pretexting, an illegal method that involves having people impersonate someone else to access records. (I've had something similar happen to me. A now ex-friend impersonated me just over ten years ago and convinced my phone company at the time to transfer yet another person's phone bill to my phone. After a shouting match with the company, who denied they'd ever do such a thing - despite my friend's confession - I switched to cell phones, and now VoIP, and have not owned a landline since.)
Written by ewriter on September 27th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Security and Regulation and Privacy.
After the arrest of five foreign nationals in Namibia providing VoIP service without a license, as well as goings on in various Asian and African countries in regards to VoIP, you might be wondering if VoIP is under attack there. Marcelo Rodriguez takes a crtical look [Voxilla] at what Russell Shaw [ZD Net] and Rich Tehrani [TMC Net] are saying.
Rodriguez points out that both Shaw and Tehrani mention "Third World" countries as locales where VoIP seems to be under attack, possibly due to affiliations between the government and the traditional telecoms, but that they leave out the US as being in a similar category. (Examples: Korea and the UAE blocking Skype.) He then goes on to reveal several examples of lobbying, campaign contributions, and all-expense golf vacations.
The Voxilla piece is very revealing and extremely politically charged. I'm going to take my cue to up the voltage. Let's take a few separate scenarios. First scenario, conspiracy: the entire telephony system in North America is fully wiretapped and all calls are monitored either by humans or machines, for whatever political purpose the real men with power wield. Second scenario: the first scenario is crock, but phone calls are a valuable commodity and thus extremely lucrative. Third scenario: a combination of both the first and second scenarios.
Choose your scenario. Either way, VoIP threatens the status quo, and hence spawns acts like CALEA, possibly attacks on Vonage's share price, and debates like neutrality vs tiered Internet service. Everything that is happening politically in telephony satisfies one of those three scenarios. Let's face it: VoiP is a threat no matter how you slice your political pie.
Written by ewriter on September 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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Universities Banning Skype
A number of universities have
decided to ban Skype, stating that it consumes bandwidth and supposedly
is an "illegal" waste of resources. (Illegal? Seriously?) Grid
computing apps are also included in the ban at several California
universities including University of California Santa Barbara, San Jose
State University, and California State University Dominguez Hills. They
are not banning Gizmo Project or Wengo. [via Ars Technica] Several countries also ban/ block Skype, including Korea and the UAE (United Arab Emirates).
Telrex CallRex VoIP Call Recording For Cisco
Telrex claims that their CallRex version 3.1 is the first VoIP call-recording solution to be certified for encrypting Cisco Unified CallManager 5.0 calls. [via Business Wire]
SIP Trunking Makes VoIP Telephony More Flexible
Rich Tehrani reflects on how SIP trunking has made IP telephony
more flexible by reducing the amount of proprietary hardware. He points
out that not all IP PBXes are connected to SIP trunks; that over half
of them (some used by IP-based call centers) are still using PSTN trunk
lines.
Written by ewriter on September 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on September 24th, 2006 with no comments.
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Not too long ago, 23 year old Edwin Pena and his accomplice Robert Moore were arrested for stealing and reselling 10M minutes of VoIP service. Pena recently went on the run and is being sought by authorities for skipping bail. Now five Asian men have been arrested in Namibia for selling VoIP without a license, based on the country's 1992 Postal and Telecommunication Act.
Bail was set at N$3,000 each and was paid. But the group will have to return to court at the end of October and may face jail time. This seems way out of whack. Wouldn't a fine be sufficient? Skype had been told by the Korean government recently that they did not have the appropriate license. No fine was levied, and Skype stopped taking new memberships from Korean citizens.
The primary difference in crime between Pena/ Moore and the five foreign nationals in Namibia is that the former group stole service from other VoIP providers. But they went to great technical lengths to do so, and got away with it for quite a while. The Nambian five were caught when they tried to sell VoIP service to a member of the public.
Additional sources: VoIP News Australia, All Africa, TMC Net.
Written by ewriter on September 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on September 16th, 2006 with no comments.
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While others are frustrated with their inability to move their VoIP, phone, or cellular numbers to a new provider, and industry steering committee in South Africa is asking their telecom regulator to delay their MNP mandate [Cellular News].
MNP, or Mobile Number Portability, would require changes in telecom company business practices. Such practices would, in this case, allow customers to port (move) their cell phone numbers with essential ease.
I think that we'll see more and more countries bringing about MNP regulations. In fact, it probably behooves cellular operators and providers to participate, to get started now, if they don't want to see a mass migration towards VoWiFi-only (VoIP over Wi-Fi) phones. While that's not a reality just yet in most cities, the increasing number of municipal Wi-Fi projects (free or otherwise) is going to help.
Personally, I think dual-mode cellular/ VoWiFi phones are going to boom in sales when that happens. So users would get a cellular signal in areas without Wi-Fi Internet access, and VoIP calling otherwise. If number portability is in place in those areas with muni Wi-Fi, then everyone wins.
Written by ewriter on September 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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Jupiter Web is giving away free copies of the Avaya edition of VoIP Security for Dummies eBook (PDF, 68 pages) in consideration for people joining the Avaya developer community. The link was sent to me in a regular Jupiter Web email, so I cannot guarantee you'll be able to use it, but I don't see why not.
The ebook is pretty "dummy-ish", in the sense that they've simplied a wide range of IP telephony security issues and summed each of them up in a few short paragraphs. It even mentions privacy issues such as CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Agencies) and a number of US govt regulations that add up to considering why you should record VoIP calls in your company.
This is certainly not a book you would use to actually implement VoIP security measures, but it's not a bad place to start if you feel you don't know enough about the issues, or don't know where to start reading about them. (The book is of course geared towards discussing Avaya solutions, so it's not exactly vendor-neutral.) You can sign up free (just your name, email, and job function) at this Jupiter Web page and download your copy.
Written by ewriter on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Phone number portability is becoming more of an issue for people who tend to move around a lot, obviously. Tom Keating recently talked about his frustrations of moving his stationary phone number to a different VoIP provider. Imagine the problems of trying to move your mobile number. (Everytime I've changed cellular providers, I've had to get a new number.)
In Japan, mobile operators will be allowing cell phone users to keep their phone numbers [VNU Net] when they switch providers. This government-mandated option will not officially take effect until late October, but millions of switchers are expected. Part of the reason for this is that Japan has a very high percentage of mobile phone users (97 M) compared to the population size (127 M).
Portability in this situation is actually beneficial to mobile service providers because of the saturation. Customers have the advantage, but providers also benefit from customers who switch - since the chance of gaining new customers is reduced. Everyone's happy. Hopefully.
Written by ewriter on September 8th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks and Services and Regulation.
Your company has sensitive information and you think that one of your high-profile board members - not employees - is leaking details to the media. What do you do? If you're Hewlett-Packard's Chairwoman Patricia Dunn, you hire private investigators and obtain phone records [CRN] for the suspects. Problem is, those investigators used illegal means to acquire those phone records. Now, the California attorney general is investigating the whole mess.
Acts like Sarbanes-Oxley (aka Sarbox) were designed to protect investors by instituting a number of measures that would ensure transparency in accounting procedures of public companies. The act might even be interpreted in such a manner that a company would decide to record all employee conversations for Sarbox and even CALEA reasons. In this case, however, the records of home and cell phone calls of board member George A Keyworth were obtained, which I'm assuming is out of the scope of both Sarbox and CALEA.
In light of this, I'm wondering if soft VoIP calls stand a chance of not being put under the domain of CALEA. Soft VoIP does not yet have a backdoor (for law enforcement) for recording calls, but some politicians are pushing for it, for dubious reasons.
Written by ewriter on September 6th, 2006 with no comments.
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Recent talk was that India's mobile phone market would be the largest in the world. But not surprisingly, China might exceed that. The 400 million mobile phones they'll produce this year make up half the world's output and will be used in other countries, but they could just as well be used there, too.
As for India, its come a long way. One East Indian friend joked to me that in India, even the janitor has a cell phone. Which was not meant to be derogatory, but to indicate how far the country has come. Not so long ago, it had daily power outages, but now has the juice to drive cellular networks that include everyone in several financial classes.
However, with the increasing number of middle-class citizens in China, it's more than possible that the Chinese mobile market may exceed India's, where they're focusing on IPTV for some reason. The VoIP market in Asia in general is growing. Though with issues such as VoIP service being illegal in China, I'm not sure if certain types of phones and PDAs are allowed in the country or not.
Even if China and India actually run close numbers for mobile use, broadband use in China is growing at about 80% annually and expected to reach 130 million users by 2010. Part of the increase will be a side effect of hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Given the political situation in China, and the fact that VoIP is illegal there, it might be difficult to understand how that government would allow the estimated 80 million users playing online games. When you run a country banning the use of certain words in print or online, it's hard to let any sort of digital interaction go unmonitored. This sort of atmosphere would permeate into a lot of things, including the way events are handled and technologies deployed.
However, dig deep into the history of the Olympics during the time that Juan Antonio Samaranch was top dog of the IOC (International Olympics Committee), and you'll see that the Olympics actually were repeatedly granted to countries and regions where there was political, civil, and/or social unrest,. The net result of hosting the Olympics in those locales actually improved conditions considerably.
Whether or not this happens in China, resulting in more open government policies, remains to be seen. But if it does, China will likely dominate in Internet use whether, whether mobile or stationary, and there will be an explosion of VoIP services and possibly some innovations.
Written by ewriter on September 5th, 2006 with no comments.
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Canada's CRTC (equivalent of US FCC) ruled last week that they would be regluating VoIP service in Canada, basically reinforcing their decision from May 2005. The big telephone companies in Canada were unhappy with this decision because it prohbits them from offering VoIP services below cost, as a loss-leader for other packages. On the other hand, apparently new VoIP companies can set whatever price they like. Furthermore, telecoms have to file a tariff for VoIP services, whereas cable companies do not. I'd assume soft VoIP providers wouldn't have to, either.
The odd thing is, Canada has a law in place since at least the 1970s, if not earlier, which prohibits any business from charging different prices to different clients for the same service. It appears, however, that the inverse is not true. While I have no love for telecoms, and have worked for some, on the surface, this decision would seem some what unfair to the telecoms. On the other hand, it gives VoIP startups a chance to compete against otherwise incumbent companies with deep pockets.
Where I don't think the ruling is fair is that cable companies get a leg up. If you know Canadian cable industry history, you know that in many areas, cablecos owned regional monopolies on service. When the giant Rogers Cable started buying out smaller regional cable providers, in at least the province of Ontario, in the late 1970s and through the 1980s, they became more powerful and allegedly incredibly uncaring about customers. At least, that's what I hear from Canadian friends, acquaintances, and insiders. Rogers Cable also owns mobile phone services that are competitive with Bell Canada's Bell Mobility division. So why Rogers Cellular, for example, should get an advantage in VoIP services over Bell Mobility, I'm not sure. They are probably about par in their power and resources.
In this situation, both should be shackled equally. Dare I say it: are the telcos getting the bum's rush? Gazing into my crystal ball, the worst case scenario shows that traditional telcos will crash and burn in the next 10 to 15 years, while cable providers will enjoy the richesse of exponentially increasing triple-play subscribers. But then again, my crystal ball is bit spotty.
Written by ewriter on September 4th, 2006 with no comments.
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Panasonic Skype Wi-Fi Phone Planned
Panasonic announced
today that they plan to develop a series of Wi-Fi Skype-certified
phones that can be used at home, office, or pretty much anywhere that
there's Wi-Fi access to the Internet. [via About Skype] Panasonic joins a rapidly growing list of vendors, such as Netgear, D-Link, and Philips, who are jumping on the Skype phone and adaptor bandwagon.
IRS Refund On Long Distance Phone Tax
The
IRS will be refunding American citizens amounts between US$30-60 on
2006 taxes. This is a reimbursement for a 3% federal tax on
long-distance service which has now been removed after US courts
refused an appeal. Total refunds will be around $10B. [via eWeek] It's hard to tell from the eWeek article, but I this might be different than the USF (Universal Service Fund), which telecoms and other firms were required to charge customers for, then pass on to the government.
Why You Need A Cordless VoIP Phone
Russell Shaw reports that according to a US Census Bureau study from May, American homes are getting larger. So VoIP providers need to offer cordless phones to make customers happy. Read his post at ZDNet for more details.
Skype 2.6 Beta For Windows
Skype
now has 2.6 Beta for Windows available, with a couple of new features:
Skypecast listings, contact's birthday reminders, and clickable mood
messages. [via Skype Blogs]
Written by ewriter on September 1st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Phones and Regulation.
As previously reported, a number of countries, including China, Oman, UAE, ban the use of Skype and sometimes VoIP altogether. (Some cellular networks in North America ban the use of VoIP by customers.) People in Dubai have reportedly gone to great lengths to get around the Internet blocks, but apparently HeyU has figured a way around. And for $25, they'll let you download a copy from an unblocked link. Keep in mind that your country might consider this illegal. If that's true, it's probably unlikely that you're reading this post anyway. They have a couple of other options, including a secure site and a SkypeOut voucher. See ITP Technology or VoIP Weblog for more details.
Personally, despite my belief in freedom of speech, I think that this is a really bad idea. There's no evidence either way whether or not HeyU is legit. I'm not saying that they are not, but for your computer's safety, I wouldn't recommend downloading VoIP software except from the original vendor. If you cannot get it that way, and you are willing to circumvent your country's law, at least get your software from a reliable source, such as a friend or family member, who in turn goes to the proper source. This way, you're less likely to be installing spyware-ridden software.
Written by ewriter on August 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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Verizon recently announced a new surcharge to their high-speed DSL Internet customers. It appears BellSouth did so as well, and the US FCC sent them letters asking them to explain. BellSouth has reputedly since dropped the surcharge and will be crediting customers back to August 16th. The FCC is still waiting for Verizon to respond. There is the possibility of fines, if regulations have been violated. [via eWeek]
While Verizon at least claimed the charge had nothing to do with the a similarly priced federal charge (USF - Universal Service Fee) that has been phased out, it's hard to believe otherwise, given the timing and price. It's still my premise that they were instituting these fees to cover telecom losses possibly due to the increasing use of VoIP.
Written by ewriter on August 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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Verizon has decided to charge their DSL high-speed Internet customers an extra US$1.20/mth (for access speeds up to 768 kbps (kilobits per second) or $2.70/m (for faster speeds). This will probably come as a surprise to customers who were expecting lower monthly bills based on a FCC decision last year to deregulate DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service. [via CRM Buyer]
The old government fee for the USF (Universal Service Fund) is being phased out. So Verizon and no doubt other cable providers are taking advantage of it by imposing their own fee. Of course, they're claiming that this new fee has nothing to do with not having to pay the USF fee anymore. Great to know that they're thinking of us.
So what gives? Isn't their monthly service fee enough? Are they really not making any money? (Cable providers are.) Could this new fee be due to expectations that free VoIP over DSL phone calls will clog up their lines? Hmmm. Read between the lines in the CRM Buyer article, and that's what it seems like.
It'll be interesting to see who the next DSL provider is that applies a similar charge to customers' bills, and whether there will be a shift to cable services.
Written by ewriter on August 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Networks and Services and Regulation.
Philips is giving Australian customers a choice for combining VoIP with PSTN. They now have a couple of cordless handsets that either use Microsoft Live or Skype (not both). You do need a PC and a broadband Internet connection to use the phones. [via The VoIP Weblog]
Because Baby Boomers are expected to migrate to specific urban or rural areas over the next twenty years or so, companies like ComSpan will beneft from offering triple play services. [via VoIP Magazine; free registration required]
Asterisk has just release a free voicemail client, Tycho, for Win32, Linux x86, and Mac OS X computers. [via Asterisk VoIP News] I assume Tycho has nothing to do with Tycho Softworks - who offer an open source telephony stack - but I could be mistaken.
Written by ewriter on August 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Services and Regulation and Privacy.
Wiretapping is unconstitutional says US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit, Michigan. She ordered a halt to the wiretapping program which was apparently secretly authorized by President Bush in 2001. The actual action will be delayed until another hearing on Sep 7/06.
While privacy advocates are no doubt happy, not everyone thinks Judge Taylor reasoned well in her decision and have criticized her as a Liberal, despite that her verdict was based on a number of Act violations.
One of the most important comments in her 43-page decision (or as the Washington Post calls it, "opinion") is the following:
... are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution.
This standing of hers is quite likely the primary basis for her detailed decision, and since it is aimed directly at President Bush, is the reason why "Congressional Republicans quickly condemned" her ruling.
See the Washington Post [via 21Talks ] for more details.
Written by ewriter on August 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Regulation and Privacy.
CALEA, or Communcations Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, has a lot of misconceptions surrounding it in terms of its applicability to VoIP, as well as security issues. The IT Association of America (ITAA) has isued a report (PDF, 21 pgs) to educate VoIP service providers. [source: TMC Net]
The deadline for CALEA compliance for VoIP providers is May 14, 2007, and the ITAA questions the ability of smaller providers to comply in time, due to the expected financial cost. Amongst other things, they also question whether standards can be developed for CALEA for VoIP because of all the different VoIP types. The ITAA paper includes Vinton Cerf of Google as an author.
Another group, GLIIF (Global Lawful Interception Industry Forum) issued a rebuttal (PDF, 8 pages) with pretty much the exact same title as the ITAA document.
My pure gut instinct says that the GLIIF report sounds like a bunch of companies protecting their own investment in future CALEA solutions, because my educated guess indicates that their main rebuttal points are in turn refutable. In fact, from the glance I had at the GLIIF document, it contradicts the opinions and public statements about CALEA made by many well-known Internet experts earlier this year.
However, that's just my feeling, and without reading both documents thoroughly, I'm not make any definitive declarations. Ultimately, whether I support it or not, I think all types of VoIP calls will be wiretapped - maybe not immediately because of technical issues, but eventually. It's been that way for decades with PSTN lines, and governments are just not going to give up that kind of surveillance power. (Having worked for telcos, I've heard things that worry me, but things aren't going to change, especially in the current climate of fear.)
Written by ewriter on August 15th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on July 24th, 2006 with no comments.
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The issue of members of the US Military not being allowed to use their VoIP services at a base in South Korea has been temporarily resolved, but it took the US government to step in.
Interestingly enough, as VoIP News points out, the reason for the whole kerfuffle has to do with several Korean telecos feeling as if the military base members were not paying for the bandwidth they were using. Gee, where have we heard that * cough * net neutrality * cough * before?
So it's okay that the US government can interfere when another country's telcos feel they're not being compensated, whether rightly or wrongly. But when interested parties here feel that the American telcos are doing the same thing in the United States, why is the government turning a deaf ear? Do private US citizens not matter as much? Isn't this called hypocrisy?
I've been using the Internet since 1991 or 92, when it was the "web", and consisted of only a few services such as FTP and limited email. The one thing that I was regularly reminded of was that the Internet was free and open - it was the purpose for its creation: to share information. Sure, commerce took over. But anyone who thinks the telcos were not compensated for their services forgets that a T1 line cost about $1000/month in 1996, and prices went up exponentially from there.
I maintain that it's still just bully boy politics, with telcos seeing their bottom line disintegrate to cheaper VoIP service. Indications are that the number of VoIP subscribers will more than quadruple in just four more years. Telcos, your tactics are transparent. So, if you can't beat'em, VoIP'em and strike up alliances.
Written by ewriter on July 17th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Business and Regulation.
If you've been following our sister publication, RFID Gazette, you'll know about a new type of RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag called RuBee with IP addressing capabilities. This means that if an SED (Service-Enabled Device) is equipped with a RuBee tag, it could be accessed via the Internet. This could be a potential solution for the VoIP e911 problem.
SEDs could be any networked device, including a digital camera, digital toaster, digital lighting system, etc., which can communicate with each other, based on predefined roles. What this also means is that if a transponder with a RuBee tag were devised, it could potentially be used as a means of directing and responding to VoIP-based e911 emergency calls.
Now this is pure speculation, and there are still a lot of technical issues that have to be solved. For example, RuBee-based transponders would have to be stationary and thus not attached to VoIP phones or to any mobile device such as a laptop or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). However, any device used to make a VoIP call would have a RuBee tag to transmit emergency status to the nearest transponder. The transponder would be designed to route the call appropriately.
This means
that each transponder would have to be geocoded, possibly in sync to a
postal/ zip code grid. Alternately, in cities with Municipal Wi-Fi,
e911 transponders could be integrated wherever signal boosters are
installed. That at least helps narrow down where a call is coming from,
even from a VoWiFi phone. Finally, household or neighborhood
transponders could also be made available, for those interested. Of
course, in the latter case, you wouldn't want the transponder
accessible to just anyone over the Internet. Just speculating.
Written by ewriter on July 14th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Wireless and Networks and Services and Hardware and Residential and Regulation.
As mentioned in the previous post, CALEA and Sarbox regulations are reasons you should record corporate VoIP. The problem is, VoIP does not lend itself well to wiretapping. Fortunately, VoIP carriers have until May 2007 to comply, which provides the industry nearly a year to work out a solution.
While Sarbox is aimed at publicly-traded businesses, CALEA applies to any business or private citizen. Even people that do not use VoIP could be affected by this act.
Some of the drawbacks of eavesdropping on VoIP data for CALEA is that more than just voice traffic has to be captured. Thus, a significant amount of irrelevant data has to be filtered out, including other VoIP users calls. What it amounts to, from a privacy perspective, is that some law enforcement official could then know a private citizen's every activity online. This goes beyond the objective to wiretap calls "of interest" and moves towards something potentially more sinister.
There are also other technical issues such as firewalls, and even Wi-Fi access that is not secured. For example, if you have a Wi-Fi network at home but have left it as open access, either because you don't care or don't know how to secure it, you might have a problem. What if your scruffy-looking neighbour across the street conducts questionable phone calls from his VoWiFi (VoIP over Wi-Fi) handset using your Wi-Fi?
Similar issues will probably suuround calls over Municipal Wi-Fi. For example, a project in Taipei City, Taiwan, expects to have 200,000 VoIP phones in use, by year's end, by administrative and public school workers. After that, they hope that private citizens will use the network for VoWiFi calls. How do you wiretap VoWiFi calls that could be made anywhere in the city, outdoors or indoors?
Another question people are asking: should CALEA extend to soft clients such as Skype? Truth is, I wouldn't be surprised if text IM clients such as Google Talk or any of the Messenger-type of software are already "monitored". But VoIP clients are another issue.
Sources: Network World [via FierceVoIP]
Written by ewriter on July 14th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Regulation and Privacy.
The other day, I gave a lengthy rundown on how you could record VoIP calls from Skype using HotRecorder, as well as links to other articles and methods. What was not mentioned was why your company just might want to make VoIP call recording a standard practice.
In a nutshell, businesses using VoIP should consider recording calls to comply with portions of both Sarbox (Sarbanes-Oxley) and CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) regulations. Sarbox is an US SEC securities regulation, and was signed into law by President Bush in 2002. CALEA is a 1994 act that gives law enforcement agencies the right to conduct surveillance on any new communications networks.
The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), has a fairly comprehensive explanation of what CALEA means to the average person and business. A government site, AskCALEA, also provides information.
Both Sarbox and CALEA supposedly operate on the principle that your data (in this case your VoIP recordings) are safe and are only required in case an investigation is necessary. Since this means long-term archival of conversation recordings, there will be VoIP audio file storage issues to consider. VON magazine has an article about recording corporate VoIP and some available solutions. [via FierceVoIP]
Written by ewriter on July 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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Unless you've been sleeping under a mushroom, you probably know that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, stirred from his dormancy and fired off not one but seven missiles, even after several countries cautioned strongly against it. Warnings of this may or may not have been this reason why South Korea suddenly backed off, a few days previous, against blocking VoIP calls by U.S. Forces Korea members.
South Korea had originally planned to block out U.S. calls due to non-compliance to their Telecommunications Business Act. However, at the request of US Forces Korea, they agreed to suspend the deadline.
It all begs the question, however, of how secure VoIP really is that the US Military would allow its individual members to use it. Or why they wouldn't set up Internet access, say, via satellite.
VoIP may generally be considered insecure, but it doesn't have to be. Calls could be encrypted and decrypted on the fly, by caller and receiver, respectively. However, to reduce the lag time on such encryption, the process would have to be done on small packets of sound, possible a few seconds at a time, else non-computer VoIP phones would have an extra processing burden.
Now, without delving into the inner workings of existing VoIP services, I'll hazard a guess that there already is some level of encryption conducted on VoIP calls. However, with encryption laws in the US and Canada being fairly strict (against exportation of algorithms), the level of encryption might actually be quite low.
Of course, the real issue in South Korea is over the ISPs that regular officers use to access the Internet and make VoIP calls. The service provider(s) they use allow unlimited VoIP calling, which the three South Korean ISPs who requested the US military block are upset about.
I seriously doubt, however, that the US Military's necessarily secure communications are being conducted via the same ISPs that individual members of the military are using.
On a related issue, Skype was recently told by South Korea to stop signing up new SkypeOut customers, until Skype adheres to telecom laws - in particular, two e-business codes. In fact, Skype's Korean Market Manager recently issued a statement that Skype was not currently doing business in South Korea.
It's interesting to note that South Korea has been a center of a considerably number of technology trials in both VoIP and RFID technology. Part of the aforementioned restrictions have to do with protecting the interests of South Korean companies.
Sources: Stars & Stripes, ZD Net Korea [via Skype Journal].
Written by ewriter on July 7th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on July 5th, 2006 with no comments.
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Written by Skype Journal on July 5th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Skype and VoIP and News and Business and Regulation and ebay and skypeout and Skypeæ‚å¿— and skypejournal and Skype News and Competitors and East Asia & the Pacific and General Notices and Skype Partner Watch and SkypeIn.
Written by Skype Journal on June 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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The Federal Communications Commission ruled last year that the VoIP service providers must offer E911 service to new and existing customers. FCC outlawed the companies from advertising services, which do not take E911 functionally.
The recent developments show that a good number of VoIP service providers are not following the mandate. On many occasions, they do respond 911 calls. It is a matter of concern for the FCC, explains its chairperson Kevin Martin. What is more shocking the fact that some of the VoIP service providers add new customers without offering 911 facilities!
Half of the US VoIP providers confirmed the FCC that they are providing E911 services to their customers. However, most of the Net Companies are not co-operating the FCC. They are still offering the VoIP service without E911 facilities since FCC enforced the law six months ago. BroadVoice does not provide 911 services while MyPhoneCompany.com considers E911 an option not compulsion, something that FCC restricts.
Via: [Yahoo! News]
Written by gautam.chabbra on June 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that like cellular operators, the VoIP service providers henceforth should pay for the Universal Service Fund (USF).
This is for the first time the VoIP service providers will contribute for the USF, while there is a hike in rate for the cell phone service providers.
The USF provides financial support to providers in rural and backward areas to ensure accessibility at reasonable rates. The FCC move is very likely to increase the customers' monthly VoIP bills. As it usually happens when the FCC hikes fees, the ultimate burden falls on the customers.
Kevin Martin, FCC chairperson comments on the new rules,
I still believe that this new system needs fundamental reform, and I remain committed to adopting and implementing a numbers-based contributions.
The new regulation directs the Cellular companies to pay 3.9 percent of their revenues and 6.8 percent of VoIP revenues.
Via: [VoIP Central]
Written by gautam.chabbra on June 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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Although FCC ruling make it compulsory for the VoIP providers to provide E911 to their customers, Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) have still some problems, a 911-solution vendor executive explains.
Jim Shepard, HBF Group executive VP during a webinar titled 'VoIP Myth Busters' quoted,
While the FCC order was a great first step in trying to get VoIP on par, there were lot of things that were just missed or purposely excluded from the order.
The Consultant Registry presented the webinar.
One such problem is FCC's soft stand towards the law violators. Shepard says that FCC on many occasions has not taken action to guarantee that VoIP providers stick to the mandates in the commission's order.
He added,
In some cases , we actually see VoIP service providers say, ' I know I need to get enhanced 911, but I'm not going to pay for it right now, because nobody's going to slap me on the wrist if I don't have it.
Via: [mrtmag]
Written by gautam.chabbra on June 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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It seems that VoIP users would have to shell out more. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has recommended that VoIP providers should pay a 7% tax and it is expected that the tax would be passed on to the consumers. VoIP providers would have to pay the taxes to the USF due to which subsidized telecom services are available in rural and low income regions, libraries and schools.
The proposal would be requiring the phone companies' to pay a fee equal to seven percent of the customer's monthly bills or around $1.75 for an average $25 tab. A decision on this is expected to be taken by 15th June.
Via: [VoIP Central]
Written by gautam.chabbra on June 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
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BT Ireland has decided not to launch a new internet based phone service to residential customers because of concerns over government delays in offering the telecom regulators more powers. The company's CEO commented that the government should give ComReg more teeth if BT wanted to offer Irish customers the services which are widely available in other markets.
BT would be happier to launch a VoIP phone service as is available in North and Britain but the current state of broadband market would make it uneconomical for them to offer VoIP for residential customers.
Written by gautam.chabbra on May 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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The Namibian Police arrested five foreign nationals, one woman and four men for illegally VoIP service. They have also sold cards to people urging them to make cheap international calls. The Namibian Telecom complains that these five foreigners carried on their VoIP service at two houses in Windhoek , which Police raided later. It also claims that the fraudulent business which was in operation since November last year caused a loss of N$2 million to the telecom.
The Telecom came to know about the fraudulent business in February. Then it complained the police. The police last week seized 640 phone cards, which were made in Japan.
Via: [Namibian]
Written by gautam.chabbra on May 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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Instructions have been sent by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the new chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology for advocating the use of VoIP technology in government. The verbal order was made by Arroyo at an event last week during which the president conversed with key executives of a call center based in states regarding VoIP.
Ramon Sales, Chairman, CICT said:
She has directed the CICT to convert the whole government into VoIP.
Switching to VoIP would cut the expenses of the government’s telecommunications.
via inq
Written by gautam.chabbra on May 20th, 2006 with no comments.
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CRTC’s telecom Decision CRTC 2005-28 Regulatory Framework for Voice Communication Services Using Internet Protocol has been referred by the GIC back to the commission for reconsideration.
The government thought that in the public interest it was necessary for the CRTC to reconsider its decision. This would give the CRTC the opportunity for taking into account the increase in demand for VoIP services and changes to the overall regulatory environment since the original decision which was announced last year. As per the telecommunications Act, GIC has the authority to vary or rescind any telecommunications decision of the CRTC or refer it back for reconsideration.
Via cablecaster
Written by gautam.chabbra on May 11th, 2006 with no comments.
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The Canadian government has made a move for easing telecom regulations by asking the CRTC for reconsidering a decision made in 2005 for controlling the prices of VoIP telephone services. This was done in order to allow new competitors in the market to compete in an effective manner. Now most of the companies including Shaw are taking advantage of the situation for charging above market prices for their digital phone service.
According to Maxime Bernier, Industry Minister, Canada:
After careful study and the subsequent appeals, the government believes it is in the public interest for the CRTC to reconsider its decision. This will give the CRTC the opportunity to take into account the increase in demand for VoIP services and changes to the overall regulatory environment since the original decision was announced last year.
via teleclick
Written by gautam.chabbra on May 8th, 2006 with no comments.
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US FCC has ordered all broadband providers and VoIP providers for enabling their systems to be open for snooping. The order is meant for implementing a program called Communications assistance for Law Enforcement on May 14.
This would enable the FBI, CIA and the police to easily monitor the voice and text conversations due to the modifications that the companies are required to undertake in their network. Details regarding what the law would be like can be found on website of fcc. It is still unclear as to what rules would make of VoIP outfits that encrypt their communications.
via theinquirer
Written by gautam.chabbra on May 5th, 2006 with no comments.
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The U.S. government is finally waking up to realize the popularity of VoIP and the resultant security issues that this new consumer technology poses. On May 1, a bill co-authored by Senators Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), was introduced in the United States Senate.
The Senators are also chairman and co-chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee respectively. Their 135-page document, called the "Communications, Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006," proposes a comprehensive overhaul of the Communications Act of 1934. Amidst a long list of 'things to do', the bill says that VOIP traffic must be identifiable.
Via PCMag
Written by gautam.chabbra on May 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
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The House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet is debating the language of a bill introduced recently that aims to create a national franchising system for cable TV and Internet service providers.
This Bill may blow the market wide open. If passed, all the major carriers and cable players will fight each other with the so-called "triple threat" weapon – an all-in-one television, Internet, and voice communications service, may soon be offered on a national scale.
The Bill, not yet named, is provisionally named the Barton Bill, after its author, Chairman of House Committee on Energy and Commerce Joe Barton (R - Texas). Moreover, the Subcommittee is a division of Barton's own committee. The current version of the Barton Bill stipulates that national franchisees may operate cable services in areas where local, authorities (of different kinds) have already granted limited monopolies (or duopolies) to cable TV providers in selected regions.
Via TGDaily
Written by gautam.chabbra on April 1st, 2006 with no comments.
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To establish a clean regulatory framework for the future UK Media and Communication regulator Ofcom has released its consultation document in regard to VoIP and consumer protection. Ofcom earlier propositioned operators who are offering VoIP services had to clearly inform consumers what they are offering and what not. In the released document Ofcom addresses issues such as call quality and reliability. The final version of the document will be published only after May and till then the new set of preliminary guidelines will be open to comments from consumers.
Via [Teleclick]
Written by gautam.chabbra on February 27th, 2006 with no comments.
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