China Decision May Ban Skype

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has declared that Internet telephony services other than those provided by state-owned carriers are illegal, a decision likely to affect the availability of services such as Skype, according to a report on Thursday.

The government-controlled People’s Daily reported on Thursday that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) had declared as illegal internet telephony services other than those provided by China Telecom and China Unicom.

No timetable

China Telecom is the state-owned fixed telephone carrier and China Unicom provides mobile services. The decision is designed to protect these state-owned carriers, according to the People’s Daily.

China Unicom is Apple’s exclusive iPhone provider in China.

“The decision is expected to make Skype, UUCall and other similar services unavailable in China,” the report said.

MIIT has not provided a timetable for when the ruling will take effect, according to the report.

In 2007 Skype began providing a Chinese-language version of its client with TOM Online, and that client was still available as of Friday.

Skype said in a statement on Thursday that the service was still available in China. “Skype is not blocked in China,” the company stated.

The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and other news services reported that MIIT has also set up a telephone hotline for reports of violations of the internet telephony law. The government reportedly said it is waging a “campaign to crack down on illegal Voice over Internet Protocol phone services”.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other services have already been banned in China.