VoIP services except those provided by China Unicom and China Telecom to be made illegal

摘要

The regulator of China has announced that VoIP (voice-over-Internet Protocol) services other than those offered by China Unicom and China Telecom would be illegal, implying that Skype would be considered illegal. This move is being seen as an attempt to safeguard the duopoly of these government-controlled firms and has drawn sharp criticism. VoIP enables people to achieve significant savings on phone calls. For instance, a phone call made from the US to South Korea costs 60 cents per minute, whereas the same VoIP call costs 10 cents per minute. Skype could not be reached for comment.