China "Outlaws" VoIP, Creates VoIP Reporting Hotline

John Biggs

Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... → Learn More

Friday, December 31st, 2010


The State Ministry of Industry in China has “outlawed” VoIP calling, suggesting workers use good old China telecom for their important calls out into the Capitalist wilds. According to a report, the ministry suggested that 30 million current users are using “illegal VoIP operators” and they have been given a number to call to report use of VoIP in their neighborhoods.

Generally this looks more like a power play by China Telecom and the other carriers to maintain its user base than any real concern over legality. However, it’s fairly obvious that VoIP is harder to police than POTS but considering the official Chinese carriers offer VoIP of their own, it’s pretty hard to swallow the security angle.

via Inquirer

blog comments powered by Disqus