YorickBrown
04-26-04, - 08:13 PM
"The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is warning the public that persons who provide illegal Voice Over Internet Protocol Services (VOIP) or aid and abet unlicensed operators in the provision of such services will face prosecution and the possibility of heavy fines.
According to the PUC there has been a proliferation of advertisements offering reduced international telephone rates and the PUC has also received increasing inquiries relating to (VoIP). However, the PUC says that only The Bahamas Telecommunications Company and Systems Resource Group have been licensed under the Telecommunications Act by the PUC to provide public Voice Telephony services which include Voice Services over the Internet (VoIP) and Voice over Internet Protocol Networks.
"Any person who, without a Licence from the PUC, establishes, operates or provides public VoIP services or aids and abets the unlicensed provision of these services shall be guilty of a criminal offence and may be fined up to three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) in accordance with Section 35 of the Telecommunications Act, " said E. George Moss, Executive Director, PUC. He also said violators could expect to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
The PUC is requesting that the members of the public with knowledge of this type of illegal activity provide information to the PUC at telephone (242) 322-4437, fax (242) 323-7288 or info@pucbahamas.gov.bs."
__________________________________________________
This announcement is a surprisingly shameless attempt to keep this nation in the technological doldrums, which most Third World countries continuously struggle to get out of.
The reality is that the major instant messenger programs for PC’s (AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Skype) all have built-in VoIP services (some through Net2Phone.com) which allow users to place inexpensive (or even “free”) pc to phone calls to the US and Canada. Are they going to "fine" everyone who decides to place a call using one of these virtually “free” services?
What makes the situation even funnier is that users of these instant messenger programs often are not aware of this VoIP capability, but because of this announcement, they now will become aware of exactly what they were missing. Is the PUC going to regulate each and every one of these thousands of instant messenger programs on home and office PC’s in The Bahamas? That would definitely be a feat of epic proportions. Even if they decided to try and block certain Internet ports at the leading ISP’s, one thing is certain: In the world of computers there is always another way around.
Vonage.com (http://www.vonage.com) is probably the PUC’s primary enemy in this instance of blatant monopolistic protectionism. Vonage has even come out with an ad campaign that taunts:
Vonage - your phone company’s worst nightmare!
The Vonage service offers unlimited phone calls to the US or Canada for under $40/month. Included in that package is a Cisco ATA device which is plugged into a Cable/DSL modem or Internet-sharing router, automatically making an effortless data connection over the Internet to the Vonage service. After that step is completed, the customer can then plug any normal telephone into the Cisco ATA device and begin calling whomever they want in the US and Canada, for as long as they want. Long distance rates to countries outside of the US and Canada are highly competitive as well, with calls to London, Paris and Hong Kong for less than $.03/minute.
:jawdroop:
There is no way that Batelco could compete with this fast-spreading Internet technology. What the PUC has chosen to do is openly threatening the technological progression of this country. The question that I have is, “What beneficial technological service will they attempt to regulate next?” The Bahamian government should have just sold the outdated telecommunications dinosaur of Batelco in the first place. It just goes to show how short-sighted they were in keeping the overbloated company – all because the cellular phone market seemed to make things a bit more profitable. Technological progression versus Monopolistic protectionism: the saga of a Third World nation continues.
According to the PUC there has been a proliferation of advertisements offering reduced international telephone rates and the PUC has also received increasing inquiries relating to (VoIP). However, the PUC says that only The Bahamas Telecommunications Company and Systems Resource Group have been licensed under the Telecommunications Act by the PUC to provide public Voice Telephony services which include Voice Services over the Internet (VoIP) and Voice over Internet Protocol Networks.
"Any person who, without a Licence from the PUC, establishes, operates or provides public VoIP services or aids and abets the unlicensed provision of these services shall be guilty of a criminal offence and may be fined up to three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) in accordance with Section 35 of the Telecommunications Act, " said E. George Moss, Executive Director, PUC. He also said violators could expect to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
The PUC is requesting that the members of the public with knowledge of this type of illegal activity provide information to the PUC at telephone (242) 322-4437, fax (242) 323-7288 or info@pucbahamas.gov.bs."
__________________________________________________
This announcement is a surprisingly shameless attempt to keep this nation in the technological doldrums, which most Third World countries continuously struggle to get out of.
The reality is that the major instant messenger programs for PC’s (AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Skype) all have built-in VoIP services (some through Net2Phone.com) which allow users to place inexpensive (or even “free”) pc to phone calls to the US and Canada. Are they going to "fine" everyone who decides to place a call using one of these virtually “free” services?
What makes the situation even funnier is that users of these instant messenger programs often are not aware of this VoIP capability, but because of this announcement, they now will become aware of exactly what they were missing. Is the PUC going to regulate each and every one of these thousands of instant messenger programs on home and office PC’s in The Bahamas? That would definitely be a feat of epic proportions. Even if they decided to try and block certain Internet ports at the leading ISP’s, one thing is certain: In the world of computers there is always another way around.
Vonage.com (http://www.vonage.com) is probably the PUC’s primary enemy in this instance of blatant monopolistic protectionism. Vonage has even come out with an ad campaign that taunts:
Vonage - your phone company’s worst nightmare!
The Vonage service offers unlimited phone calls to the US or Canada for under $40/month. Included in that package is a Cisco ATA device which is plugged into a Cable/DSL modem or Internet-sharing router, automatically making an effortless data connection over the Internet to the Vonage service. After that step is completed, the customer can then plug any normal telephone into the Cisco ATA device and begin calling whomever they want in the US and Canada, for as long as they want. Long distance rates to countries outside of the US and Canada are highly competitive as well, with calls to London, Paris and Hong Kong for less than $.03/minute.
:jawdroop:
There is no way that Batelco could compete with this fast-spreading Internet technology. What the PUC has chosen to do is openly threatening the technological progression of this country. The question that I have is, “What beneficial technological service will they attempt to regulate next?” The Bahamian government should have just sold the outdated telecommunications dinosaur of Batelco in the first place. It just goes to show how short-sighted they were in keeping the overbloated company – all because the cellular phone market seemed to make things a bit more profitable. Technological progression versus Monopolistic protectionism: the saga of a Third World nation continues.