Skype Banned in China in State-Run Carrier Crackdown

Jenara Nerenberg
FastCompany.com
December 30, 2010

Skype received a booting from China today, the same day the company announced the addition of video calling to its iPhone app (and iPad and iPod Touch). The ban says that only China Telecom and China Unicom are allowed to operate VoIP services in the country–all private carriers are now deemed illegal.

The Chinese government has announced that any VoIP service administered outside of China Telecom and China Unicom are now deemed illegal, effectively making Skype and other VoIP services banned from use in China. The news comes on the same day that Skype announced the addition of video calling to its iPhone app, as well as the iPad and iPod Touch.

 
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The decision points to an increasing monopoly on the part of the two state-run players, securing revenues for them and them only and of course ensuring state-watch over all VoIP communications. The addition of video calling is likely to be cause for extra concern for the tightly controlled media environment of China.

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This article was posted: Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 11:15 am

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