Swiss govt may tap VOIP calls

The Swiss government is planning to put wiretaps on Internet phone conversations, according to Swiss newspaper reports. The software will be supplied by a Swiss company, said reports.

This emerged on Out-Law.Com, which writes: "Wiretapping landlines and mobile telephones is an established part of crime prevention, but VOIP calls are a new phenomenon and harder to bug."

The article explores factors like servers and connections often sitting in foreign countries, commonly the US, hindering a country`s law enforcement agency from exercise the same power of discovery that they can over a phone provider`s records; and also the fact that calls can also be harder to trace when they are free, since there is no billing record.

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8x8, provider of Packet8 VOIP and videophone services, has been awarded two US patents for VOIP technology, writes TCM Net.

The first of these patents: "Voice Over Internet Processor" (US patent number 7 120 143), is for a programmable audio processor chip for processing voice data, the second: "Sensor-Controlled Telephone System" (US patent number 7 120 238), is a method for selecting an operating mode of a telephony system that is used in a closed facility and is communicatively-coupled to the Internet.

"To be purely speculative," the article notes, "the latter sounds like it could be a new type of presence technology that allows a VOIP telephone system to detect whether or not someone is sitting at or near their phone - without actually being on the phone. Perhaps this is achieved through the addition of some type of sensor that is connected to the network - maybe on the handset itself?"

Bangladesh`s Daily Star reports the country`s regulator, the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC), is in a hurry to award VOIP licences.

"The BTRC received 51 applications for VOIP licences on 8 October. Applicants include 31 Internet service providers, 14 public switched telephone networks and six mobile phone companies," the article reports.

But, adds the article, "without a common platform, powerful illegal VOIP operators who are among these applicants will now easily get BTRC licences, and will not only eat up the market of Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board but also deprive the government of international telecom revenue."