VoIP Beats Conventional Phone Service In Iraq

Posted by timothy on Monday July 28, 2003 @09:46PM from the you-would-think-so dept.

andyring writes "According to this article at Wired, without reliable long distance or particularly international telephone service in Iraq, citizens in Baghdad and elsewhere turn to voice chat over programs such as Yahoo Voice Chat or other similar programs. Broadband at Internet cafes in Baghdad runs about $1/hr, whereas an international phone call (if you can even get a connection) is about $1/minute. The service is so popular, it sucks up almost all the available bandwidth from the government-run ISP, State Company for Internet Services (site is Arabic)."

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Re:Whaaaa? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-07-28 23:39 · Score: 1, Troll

Iraq used to have a lot of kick ass fiber but the American's blew it up so that the communications firm owned by the new Colonial Overlord could rebuild it and suck down some of that juicy tax money! Woohoo!

Actually Iraq was one of the most progressive and advanced of all the Arab countries mainly becuase it had been independant from western imperialism for 50 years. 50 years too long according to the Uk and USA hence it had to be reconquered, don't won't those uppity Arabs ruling themselves!