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Nothing related| Costa Rica to Consider Criminalising VoIP |
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| Tuesday, 01 March 2005 | |
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The growth in international VoIP calls has prompted Costa Rica’s state-owned telecommunications monopoly Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) to propose legislation that could criminalise the use of Internet telephone calls.
The ICE said that it views VoIP as a value-added telecom service and therefore it should be regulated. One Costa Rican official said that ICE's proposal would be "disastrous" to the country's efforts to grow its software development and outsourcing businesses. The official noted that Costa Rica has been rapidly growing its outsourcing business and low-cost phone service is essential to the growth of that business. Though ICE has been criticised by some for stifling competition, it has established efficient telephone service throughout the Costa Rica, which is rapidly emerging from third world status. Around 20% of Costa Rica’s international calls are made using VoIP technology. The use of Skype Technologies' peer-to-peer Web calling is widespread and other VoIP services including U.S. VoIP operator Vonage are also used to make and receive calls. Claudio Bermudez, ICE deputy director, was quoted as saying: "VoIP, which is characterized as a telephone service, is a (telecommunications) carrier and substitute telephone service, and as such uses the public telecommunications infrastructure." The question of VoIP and whether it should be regulated as a telephone service or left unregulated as a data service has been debated extensively in the U.S. Most governmental agencies and courts have ruled that Internet telephony is a data service that should not be regulated. Intelecon Research & Consultancy Ltd 01/03/2005 |
