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VoIP Legal Status Worldwide?

Posted by samzenpus on from the free-for-all dept.

Cigarra writes "There was much public debate going on during the last several months here in Paraguay, regarding the 'liberation of Internet,' that is, the lifting of the restriction on ISPs to connect directly to international carriers. Up until this week, they were forced to hire wholesale service from the State run telco, Copaco. During the last month, when the new regulation was almost ready, the real reason supporting the monopoly made it to the headlines: Copaco would fight for the monopoly, fearing VoIP based telephony. Finally, the regulator Conatel resolved today to end the monopoly, but a ruling on VoIP legal status was postponed for 'further study.' I guess this kind of 'problem' arose almost everywhere else in the world, so I ask the international slashdotters crowd: what is VoIP's legal status in your country / state / region? How well did incumbent telcos adapt to it, and overall, just how disruptive was this technology to established operators?"

2 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Re:In Canada by MrNaz · · Score: 5, Informative

    South Africa had banned VoIP technology until recently. There's lots of information in this 2001 article:

    http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2001/0103271307.asp?A=VPN&S=VPN&T=Section&O=SBR

    --
    I hate printers.
  2. VoIP in Latin America by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Residential User:
    Mexico - Illegal if you don't buy from one of the Telmex concessionaires.
    Nicaragua - Illegal. You go to jail for it.
    Honduras - Illegal. Jail.
    Costa Rica - Illegal. Fine.
    Dominican Republic - Illegal. Jail.
    Panama - Legal. Do whatever you want.
    Colombia - Illegal. They disconnect your Internet line if they catch it.
    Venezuela - Legal. Chaves Monopoly.
    Brazil - Legal. Plenty of providers.
    Argentina - Legal. Plenty of providers.
    Chile - Legal. Plenty of providers.

    Termination (to leak, connect a VoIP gateway to phone lines or ISDN lines and provide termination to guys like Arbinet):

    Mexico: Illegal. Jail.
    Nicaragua: Illegal. Fine and Jail.
    Costa Rica: Illegal. Fine and Jail.
    Honduras: Illegal. Fine and Jail.
    Colombia: Illegal. Fine.
    Dominican Republic: Illegal. Fine and Jail.
    Venezuela: Illegal. Fine and Jail (and some worse stuff...)
    Brazil: Illegal. Fine and Jail (They just closed a huge leak there with 12 Cisco 5350s. Guys got fined in 2 million bucks)
    Argentina: Legal. You may get problems with your ISP.
    Rest: I don't know.