The 100 per cent Fusion Telecommunications-owned Dubai-based firm Efonica, is warming itself to become the global leader VoIP services beating Skype that has over 100 million subscribers. But how? Well, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of United Arab Emirates ruling VoIP legal is imminent. The ruling is expected to come within Q1 of 2007. As the soundbytes emerging now, the suggestion is that Efonica will be fully prepared by then.



Upbeat with the prospect, Ibrahim Choueiry, Regional Director Asia and Africa, Efonica says;

We aim to be ready as soon as the TRA makes an announcement.




There may be a probable glitch though in Efonica’s ambitions. It is that the key to be a world leader is to provide not only quality service, but also it should be free. Also, one more thing that might bother subscribers is that how many service providers would be into play though which the Efonica service would be provided.



So whether the service would be free or the service would be provided through other players that the only two current service providers Etisalat and Du is crucial to Efonica’s grand plans.



An optimistic Choueiry believes that TRA ruling will ‘probably let IP to IP calls be a free service in much the same way as communicating via MSN Messenger is free’. However, if the service is provided through a third party, then obviously there would be some kind of a charge to the customer.



Anyway, only time will tell how this thing shapes up for Efonica. For that, one will have to wait till the first quarter of 2007. In any case, with a large migrant population in the UAE especially from South Asia, if this clicks, Skype might well have a competitor in its hands. Efonica can well spread like a viral not only in the Gulf, but to South Asia as well, and that’s where the numbers are.



Let’s keep our fingers crossed.



News: Khaleej Times