UAE regulator to decide on Skype

The United Arab Emirates' telecom regulator expects to decide by the end of the year on a proposal to allow international calls through the Internet, states Arabian Business.

"We have been doing consultations with the sector. We want to upgrade VOIP to include international phone calls for licensed operators hopefully before the end of the year," says Mohamed Al-Ghanim, DG of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.

Currently, telecom operators Emirates Telecommunications Corp and du can provide only domestic calls using VOIP technology.

The economic slowdown and resulting credit crunch may be hitting independent VOIP operator Vonage particularly hard, says BroadbandReports.

The $253 million in survival loans Vonage thought it had secured in July fell through and the VOIP carrier has extended the tender offer for its outstanding loans.

The company is extending the offer to purchase its convertible debt for a fourth time.

About 8.5 million more US households will start using VOIP for their home phone service over the next two years, according to a new forecast from Pike & Fischer's (P&F's) Broadband Advisory Services, reports MarketWatch.

The number of VOIP-connected households in the US will approach 30 million by the end of the decade, generating more than $11 billion in revenue for cable operators, telephone companies and network-independent providers such as Skype, P&F predicts.

P&F expects VOIP-connected households to grow at about 14% annually over the next five years.