China looks to disconnect free Internet calls with help of US company
A US technology group has sold software to a major telecoms firm that will allow China to block popular free Internet telephone services such as Skype.
US Verso Technologies said it had sold a trial version of its software to block computer-to-telephone call services to a Chinese telco, but gave few further details.
"Verso does have an executed trial agreement with a tier-one carrier in China," Verso's chief executive Monty Bannerman said in a statement on Monday.
"However, at the request of the customer, we will maintain their anonymity until the trial is completed."
The statement follows a Beijing Business Today report in September that China Telecom, the country's largest fixed-line carrier, was working to shut down telephony service companies due to losses caused by the largely free services.
The newspaper said China was experimenting with blocking computer-to-telephone and computer-to-computer services in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
It cited Europe's Skype, which reportedly has between 3.4 million and four million users in China, as one target of the crackdown.
Verso's NetSpective product allows carriers to "selectively disable undesirable network traffic."
The company says it protects operators from virus attacks, increased congestion and "the violation of legal intercept requirements established by most nations around the world."
If the obstruction system proves effective, China Telecom hopes to install it nationwide over the next two years, the September report said.
Luxembourg-based Skype uses Voice over Internet Protocol technology to enable users to make telephone calls via the Internet.
Skype's software includes the fee-paying "SkypeOut" service in China and free computer-to-computer telephone services elsewhere.
Skype's chief executive Niklas Zennstrom recently told the Financial Times that he had no knowledge of any Chinese telecom carrier purchasing Verso's NetSpective M-Class carrier grade application filter.
Source: AFP
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