VoIP calls a crime in Costa Rica?
p2pnet.net News:- New legislation in Costa Rica could make Net phone calls a criminal offence.
The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) telecommunications monopoly sees VoIP as a value-added telecom service and says it should be regulated. “At its most Draconian, the proposal would make Internet telephoning a crime,” reports TechWeb.com.
But an anonymous Costa Rican official of an agency “seeking to promote” the country’s software industry said ICE’s proposal would be “disastrous” to efforts to grow its software development and outsourcing businesses. The official noted that Costa Rica has been rapidly growing its outsourcing business and low-cost telephone service is crucial to the growth of that business.
The ICE proposal was first reported in “La Nacion,” the country’s national newspaper, which noted that some 20 percent of the country’s international calls are made using VoIP technology, says TechWeb.com, going on:
“The use of Skype Technologies’ peer-to-peer Web calling is widespread and other VoIP services including U.S. VoIP pacesetter Vonage are also used to make and receive calls to and from the Central American nation.”
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See:-
TechWeb.com – Costa Rica May Criminalize VoIP, February 28, 2005
