Jordan Telecom, the only telephone service provider in the kingdom, has slammed the long-distance telephone calls carried out through the internet describing the service as 'illegal'.
Jordan Telecom's Olivier Faure, chief marketing officer was quoted by the Jordan Times as saying that "under telecommunications law, Jordan Telecom, has a monopoly on voice transmission in the Kingdom until 2004 when competition will be introduced," noting that the current "voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technology is illegal" as it undercuts this arrangement.
The data communications license given to Internet service providers (ISPs) makes clear and explicit mention of the fact that VOIP is forbidden," says Faure.
"We are a private company, and this definitely damages our profit, but much less than hurting Jordan Telecom, it hurts our investors like JITCO and Arab Bank and even the government."
With less profit for our company, government gets less dividends, and with less money coming from telecommunications, at the end of the day, Jordan is losing."
"You can't put a cop behind every computer," he says.
Although Faure understands that the end user is profiting from the service through cheaper calls, he believes "it will hurt the customer in the end," – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
