Bahrain blocks illegal VOIP

Bahrain authorities have ordered the suspension of two illegal voice-over-Internet protocol (VOIP) services in the region, reports ITP.net.

Nonotalk offers consumers an unlicensed public voice telephony service, while Seefcall provides a call-back service, where users can buy credit online, and then make national and international VOIP calls.

The Bahrain Telecommunications Regulatory Authority says both services are in breach of country's telecom's laws.

Analysts largely agree that Facebook would do well to acquire VOIP giant Skype, allowing the social network's users to leverage calling capabilities and helping Facebook battle Google, states eWeek.

Facebook and Skype are mulling an integration that would allow users of the world's largest social network to send text messages and make voice and video calls to friends and contacts via Skype.

The integration - which would enable Facebook's 500 million users to connect to Skype, which has 560 million registered users of its own - is expected to be rolled out in the Skype 5.0 beta this month.

Market research firm Infonetics Research reveals that worldwide VOIP service revenue totalled $22.6 billion in the first half of 2010, up 8% over the same period last year, says TMCnet.

"Based on all indications and the feedback we are getting from service providers, we expect 2010 to end on a high note, with revenue up 13% over 2009," notes Diane Myers, directing analyst for VOIP and IMS at Infonetics.

According to Infonetics, despite slowing growth of residential VOIP services due to pricing pressures across all geographies, new developments continue in regions such as Africa and Southeast Asia that previously did not have a large residential VOIP provider base.