UAE ban on VOIP continues

The ban on Skype and other voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services in the UAE will continue, says Gulf News.

These services will be allowed only through licensed telecommunication operators - etisalat and du, a top Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) official said on Sunday.

"VOIP for everyone is still under consultation. No timeframe can be set on when that's going to be allowed. We are doing a lot of consultation and we are looking into what's happening around the world with regard to

VOIP," said TRA director general-board member, Mohammad Al Ganem.

Apple will not block third-party developers from creating VOIP over WiFi solutions on the iPhone and iPod Touch, states Dslreports.

It did, however, stipulate that the solutions have to work over WiFi and not through the cellular network.

This could make sense to VOIP developers as the bandwidth limitations of the cell network make it difficult to develop VOIP on that platform.

Software developer Unison has released what it claims is the world's first fully-unified communications suite based on Linux, reports PC World.

Announced at Cebit, the suite, called Unison, combines IP telephony, e-mail and instant messaging with diary, address book and presence capabilities, all in a single Linux server. It is available free as a public beta.

"You can get all these elements separately on Linux, but this is the first time they have all been in one server," said Rurik Bradbury, Unison's chief marketing officer.