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Table 4.1: Regulatory Questions in relation to VoIP, mid-2006
Question Implications Examples
1. How should VoIP services be defined?
What does the regulator consider VoIP
services to be?
This determines the scope of services considered to be
included as VoIP and hence subject to regulation. (A
related question is the criteria that make it possible to
regard a service as being publicly available telephony).
See Appendix Table 1.
2. Is the provision of commercial VoIP
services legal and authorised?
If No, the country falls into Category 1 (Illegal).
If yes, proceed to Question 3.
The answers and approach adopted to these questions
determine the legal basis for proceedings against
operators (often alternative operators) providing VoIP
services.
Countries where VoIP is explicitly banned (according to most
recent data): Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Cameroon, Comoros, Costa
Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana (“yet to
legalise VoIP”), Guinea, Guyana, Honduras, Kuwait, Liberia,
Mozambique, Namibia, Paraguay, Qatar, Seychelles, Swaziland,
UAE.
3. If legal, are VoIP services regulated?
If no, country falls into category 2 (unregulated).
If yes, the country falls into category 4 or 5 (regulated).
VoIP is explicitly deregulated or subject to only light regulation in
Argentina, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Barbados, Canada, Czech Rep.,
Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland,
Nicaragua, Romania, Turkey, Uruguay, US.
4. Is it necessary to obtain a license? A licensing framework gives regulators an opportunity to
lay out clear and distinct terms and conditions relating to
the provision of service. The licensing framework for
VoIP is also being considered in moves towards unified
licensing framework.
Licenses are frequently used as the means by which VoIP
business is safeguarded for the incumbent in some
markets.
(Certain) VoIP services may require a license in Algeria,
Bangladesh, Barbados, Brunei, China (to be officially confirmed),
Croatia, Dominican Rep., Egypt, Israel, Luxembourg, Mauritius,
Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, Singapore,
Saudi Arabia, Slovak Rep., South Africa, Spain, Taiwan (China),
Tanzania, Uganda, Venezuela.
VoIP services may be provided by the incumbent (only) in Bahrain,
DRC Congo, Jordan, Oman, Tunisia, Uganda, Viet Nam, and
Zambia.
5. Should VoIP services be regulated like
PSTN? (& what regulations apply to PSTN).
If yes, country falls into category 4 (=PSTN).
If no, the country falls into category 5 (own regulations).
PSTN – Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden,
Switzerland, UK.
6. In more mature markets:
- Interconnection of VoIP operators
- technical and QoS standards;
- Allocation of numbers for VoIP services?
- Emergency call service, caller ID and
number portability;
- Info to be provided to consumers
- Protection of consumer interests
These questions are vital in determining:
- sophistication and capabilities of the service on offer;
- the scale of investment to establish service;
- market entry of new/new types of operators (e.g. start-
up versus established content providers);
- ultimately, whether the VoIP market is competitive;
- and the importance of consumer rights.
VoIP is (explicitly) legal in Algeria, Australia, Austria, Argentina,
Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chad
(internationally), Chile (at the local level), Colombia, Croatia,
Czech Rep., Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary,
Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Rep. of Korea,
Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua,
Nigeria, Norway, Panama (domestically), Philippines, Portugal,
Romania, Singapore, Slovak Rep., Slovenia, S.Africa, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan (China), Tanzania, Thailand, Togo,
Turkey, Uganda, UK, Uruguay, US, Viet Nam, Zambia.
Source: ITU