VON Insists on Action Against the ISPs That Block VoIP
VON, the acronym stands for Voice On the Net Coalition. It is a body that includes some big names of the internet sector such as Skype, BT, Microsoft and Intel in their list of membership. It has recently shot back into news as it strongly urged the European Union to take action against those mobile broadband service providers that blocked the VoIP (voice over internet protocol) services deliberately from being accessed on their 3G/cellular networks.
It is an undeniable fact that a number of mobile broadband suppliers in the UK, including Vodafone tend to block VoIP services like Skype from being accessed on their mobile broadband network. The main reason for such actions from the part of the mobile broadband ISPs is believed to be from the fear of the revenue robbed of from the standard voice calls.
The appeal of VON is very much expected to prompt the European Union to draft some new policies that would ensure that mobile broadband service providers do not prevent the users access services such as VoIP over their network. As a matter of fact, the group has been trying to do it for quite a while, although without any considerable success.
On the other hand, mobile broadband operators can practically block certain other online tools too, apart from VoIP over their services. This includes even MSN-like instant messaging clients. However, something worth mentioning here is the significance of mobile broadband visualized by Lord Carter, which is apparent in his interim Digital Britain report.
According to the Digital Britain report put forth by Lord Carter, mobile broadband was expected to play a great role in meeting the end result of broadband for every household in the UK. It is under this circumstance that Lord Carter is also much interested in taking into account such issues. This, in a way gives hope to VON on its fresh issue.
Skype stopped working for me in France some time ago, suddenly. Where I live France telecom refuse to install fixed line phones because, as with alot of residences in France, it’s a domain of secondary homes. Although people live here throughout the year. relying on a mobile phone is very expensive and when a cheap mobile internet solution became available I must have been one of the first to subscribe. A year after Skype stopped working – I might add – in the Orange contract it is not allowed to use VOIP. However they do NOT BLOCK ALL VOIP providers
try using Callserve if you have this same problem. Also, I believe, the sat internet solution alows unrestricted VOIP conecttions with video and 2Gb per month.. Orange allows 500Mb.. which I always exceed. Power to the the poeple at VON – is what I say. WE ARE ALL PAYING TOO MUCH.
Thank you for letting me air my opinion.