Does VoIP Clog up Networks?
Having been an avid VoIP user for quite a while I was perplexed as to why all of a sudden I had been having lots of issues. The quality of sound has massively deteriorated and latency issues have gone right up. Users on VoIP online forums in the US and other countries, such as France and Mexico, having problems since last year. For a while Voice over IP might seem like a good deal for the average person, entrenched interests in the telecommunication industry see it differently - and are trying to make a stand.
Consultation
knowledgeable of what has happened elsewhere the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom took the unusual step in February of announcing that it will look at the burgeoning Voice over IP market and report next month on whether new laws are necessary to protect it. The consultation document says: “VoIP service providers have expressed concern that their ability to provide a reliable service may be impacted by internet access providers (ISPs) selectively degrading or blocking their VoIP traffic.”
Ofcom says it has no evidence this is occurring in the UK; only about half a million customers use it. But the prediction is for that to rise by 3m in the next six months.
And VoIP barring takes place in other countries, more often than not those where there is still only a single incumbent telecoms company. In Saudi Arabia, for instance national carrier Saudi Telecom is using software from US supplier Narus to bar all Voice over IP phone calls.
Telecommunication companies in the US and other countries are reluctant to have their bandwidth encroached on by traffic from which they receive no funds and have been challenged over similar alleged incidents of internet telephony barring. Blocking VoIP traffic is a challenge but does not break the law and blocking specific kinds of internet traffic is going up.
The European based VoIP giant Skype who are now owned by eBay has been particularly controversial. Skype is used by over 75m people. But not everyone wants Skype on their network.
Skype is considered by a lot of people to pose a potential security risk because it creates an encrypted channel out of the network and forms supernodes that sit on a network and connect internet telephony calls. There is big debate about how much bandwidth such supernodes use. There have been claims that in supernode mode, Skype could possibly saturate a 100 Mbps line.
