Intelligence Bureau requests VOIP block

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) in India has asked the Department of Telecommunications to block voice-over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services to and from the country, reports Jai Bihar.

The IB requested the department to block the calls until a mechanism has been put into place to track calls.

During a consultation on ISP licensing, stakeholders had raised the issue that Skype and Google Talk are not licensed to provide telephony services in India, and VOIP lacks the facility of interception and monitoring.

Verizon has discontinued Verizon Hub, the touch-screen VOIP phone it had hoped would give home users second thoughts about cutting their landline, states Channel Web.

The discontinuation of Hub follows suit with other Verizon moves as the telco giant and its rivals shift their focus away from landline products.

Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg says sales of bundled video and landline services were giving way to video and mobile devices, especially as Verizon continues to promote its fibre-optic network as the go-to option for wiring its territories.

Research company YouGov omnibus has revealed in a survey that 18% of adults in the UK are opting for a mobile VOIP service offered by their mobile phone operator, while 11% have downloaded a VOIP app, says TMCnet.

According to the report commissioned by Kineto Wireless, 39% of those who downloaded a mobile VOIP application use it for low-cost international calling and 19% use it to bypass international roaming charges when travelling.

Steve Shaw, vice-president of corporate marketing with Kineto Wireless, says: “These results show us how people are using mobile VOIP applications, and operators have the opportunity to drive new service offers based on growing consumer demand.”