Two days back, VoIP central has reported the arrest of five foreign nationals in Namibia for selling VoIP services to the people.
In fact, the Telecom Namibia has the legal right to expose the frauds that operate their illegal VoIP business to make a profit. However, there is a different story behind this.
The five foreigners simply tired to offer cheap VoIP calls by bypassing the local phone monopoly of Telecom Namibia.
It is the not the case with Namibia. Such incidents are occurring in the countries, which have phone monopolies, and the telecom sector is being run by an autocratic upper class.
Namibia is not the first country to chock the growth of IP-based phone services. Belarus, Bangladesh and Israel are other countries who at once took harsh steps towards VoIP.
The question comes: Why are the developing countries hard at VoIP despite the fact that the people of these countries are obsessed to take the advantage of cheap international calls?
Russell Shaw says,
Although there is no smoking gun, most of these nations have phone monopolies and a small, autocratic upper economic class with a handful of oligarchs accustomed to practicing extraordinary cordial relations with ruling authorities.
In fact, the state-run telecoms in these countries are prominently opposing a competitive market for VoIP.
