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France Demands Skype Register As a Telco

Posted by Soulskill on from the regulators-mount-up dept.

jfruh writes "Skype made a name for itself by largely bypassing the infrastucture — and the costs, and the regulations — of the legacy telecommunications industry. But now the French telecom regulator wants to change that, at least in France. At issue is not the service's VoIP offering, but rather the Skype Out service that allows users to dial phones on traditional networks. Regulators say that this service necessitates that Skype face the same regulations as other telecoms."

3 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why Silicon Valley did not happen in France by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 0, Troll

    Regulations designed to protect the incumbent status quo, rather than serving the needs of real users, is the kind of thing that has kept France out of the picture for innovation. France must import their innovation.

    As someone who was a US based IT employee of a French company at one time, I totally agree with this. While in general my French colleagues were good people and I still have fond memories of them, the word "arrogance" doesn't begin to describe how they feel about everything. Honestly, you'd have thought they invented every computer technology there was from the way they acted in our company. And while they've got a plausible cover story about why they want to regulate Skype, I strongly suspect that in reality France Telecom complained about how Skype is sending calls "for free over our domestic network and costing us money" and this is the real reason for the sudden regulatory interest. The relationship between certain very large French businesses and the government is under the table and quite probably in violation of various EU laws, but that relationship exists nonetheless. This is just more evidence of it.

  2. Re:As anal as France is.... by Dishevel · · Score: 0, Troll

    Let me just state for the record.
    If France is on one side of an issue ...
    There is about a 92.6% chance I am on the other.

    --
    Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
  3. Re:As anal as France is.... by Gordonjcp · · Score: 0, Troll

    Let me just state for the record.
    If France is on one side of an issue ...
    There is about a 92.6% chance I am on the other.

    Why's that then? Is that because they wouldn't join in George W Bush's antisemitic War on Brown People?